A Malmo, Sweden outfit that consists of Ellen Pettersson (winds, electronics, synth), Julia Ringdahl (vocals, guitar) and Liam Amner (drums), Hey Elbow have been plugging away since 2013 with their experimental songwriting. This adventurous outing began as an open collaboration between the three musicians, three dancers and a set designer, where presence, movement and responsiveness was filtered into a single 40-minute track that’s divided into five distinct parts.
“Part 01” opens with an ominous mood, where an eerie droning unfolds with ambience and cinematic sprawling that’s quite intriguing in its hazy sparseness. “Part 02” then gets much brighter, as Ringdahl’s voice is used like an instrument alongside Amner’s complicated drumming and busy backdrop that flirts with jazz but that you could also dance to.
In the middle, “Track 03” comes off as field recordings in an artistic, oddly soothing sort of fashion, while “Track 04” puts Pettersson’s buzzing synth to good use to complement the layered singing that’s intimate, heartfelt and carries a choral feel.
“Track 05” wraps things up, and it’s got plenty of rhythm and color in both adventurous and calmer bouts of atypical pop ideas that can even get a little spacey, too. An ideal meshing of organic versus synthetic, the album highlight is so well done, it alone is worth the price of admission.
This is Hey Elbow’s fourth album, and they’ve racked up 150 concerts around the world so far. They’re constantly refining their vision, and their blending of ambience, droning, improvisation, jazz and electronics balances individuality and collectivism. This installment focuses on spatial awareness, bodies in motion and human interaction, where guest spots here include Tove Bagge’s viola, Freja Drakenberg and Sandra Karlsson’s voices and Per Elofsson’s euphonium that are very appreciated.