KLINGRA - VINYL
Klingra is the seventh album from Afenginn, featuring Danish String Quartet and Teitur. The album was recorded on the Faroe Islands and in collaborations with a good bunch of Faroese musicians, with lyrics and singing in Faroese.
For friends of vinyl this is a little something extra! The album is composed especially with vinyl in mind. Klingra means circle in Faroese and the music is composed in a cyclical manner. A very cool feature with this album is that the A-side is cut with a special double groove, giving the album two entry points (which you can’t see). So the needle can either start the track Skjálvtin OR Eftirskjálvtin. The two tracks are almost identical up util 1 minute. At that point the tracks go in each their direction and merge together again at around 6 minutes, weaving seamlessly into Litirnir. The B-side ends with a closed loop, which musically is the same as the beginning of the A-side, which then again will go either into one or the other track.
It comes in a beautiful gatefold matte cover with 180g 12" vinyl.
Klingra is the seventh album from Afenginn, featuring Danish String Quartet and Teitur. The album was recorded on the Faroe Islands and in collaborations with a good bunch of Faroese musicians, with lyrics and singing in Faroese.
For friends of vinyl this is a little something extra! The album is composed especially with vinyl in mind. Klingra means circle in Faroese and the music is composed in a cyclical manner. A very cool feature with this album is that the A-side is cut with a special double groove, giving the album two entry points (which you can’t see). So the needle can either start the track Skjálvtin OR Eftirskjálvtin. The two tracks are almost identical up util 1 minute. At that point the tracks go in each their direction and merge together again at around 6 minutes, weaving seamlessly into Litirnir. The B-side ends with a closed loop, which musically is the same as the beginning of the A-side, which then again will go either into one or the other track.
It comes in a beautiful gatefold matte cover with 180g 12" vinyl.
Klingra is the seventh album from Afenginn, featuring Danish String Quartet and Teitur. The album was recorded on the Faroe Islands and in collaborations with a good bunch of Faroese musicians, with lyrics and singing in Faroese.
For friends of vinyl this is a little something extra! The album is composed especially with vinyl in mind. Klingra means circle in Faroese and the music is composed in a cyclical manner. A very cool feature with this album is that the A-side is cut with a special double groove, giving the album two entry points (which you can’t see). So the needle can either start the track Skjálvtin OR Eftirskjálvtin. The two tracks are almost identical up util 1 minute. At that point the tracks go in each their direction and merge together again at around 6 minutes, weaving seamlessly into Litirnir. The B-side ends with a closed loop, which musically is the same as the beginning of the A-side, which then again will go either into one or the other track.
It comes in a beautiful gatefold matte cover with 180g 12" vinyl.
Songs / Tracks Listing
SIDE A
Skjálvtin / Eftirskjáltvin the Impact / the Aftershock
Litirnir the Colours
Himnakropparnir Celestial Bodies
SIDE B
Ivin the Doubt
Vitin the Lighthouse
Skapanin the Creation
Tøkkin the Thanking
Line-up / Musicians
Dánjal á Neystabø: piano, additional vocals on Himnakropparnir
Teitur Lassen: piano, additional vocals on Himnakropparnir
Ólavur Jákupsson: vocals
Mikael Blak: synthbass, bassguitar
Niels Skovmand: violin
Jakob Johansen: trombone
Maggie Bjorklund: pedal steel guitar
Knut Finsrud: drums, percussion
Ulrik Brohuus: drums, percussion
Danish String Quartet: strings
Music composed and arranged by Kim Rafael Nyberg
Lyrics by Dánjal á Neystabø
TUTL Records (SHD187)
On his new album ‘Klingra’, released 11th October 2019, Nyberg has crafted a gentle yet fervent post-classical exploration into the temperament of intertwined cycles. Both the music and poetry (in Faroese) are composed by using interlocked cyclical patterns. Like the gears in a clock, the parallel themes intersect at points, creating contracted dissonance or lifting consonance. The overarching experience is deeply contemplative and melancholic, with a light of emancipation always just ahead. Obvious comparisons would be the works of Hauschka, Goldmund, Jonny Greenwood and Dustin O’Halloran.
“Klingra (circle in Faroese) is one of my more delicate and introspective pieces that leans one degree further into the neo-classical realm. I've been working with the theme of circles/cycles to inspire both the way the music is composed and the story within the poetry”, says Nyberg.
With a sound palette of two pianos, a string quartet (The Danish String Quartet), pedal steel guitar, synth bass and two drummers supporting the haunting vocals of Ólavur Jákupsson (Yann Tiersen), Klingra’s eight tracks flow one into the other, rippling with layers of ostinatos of unequal lengths, leading to a feeling of constantly being driven forward on an obscured path. The listener can be excited by both the mathematical design of the music as well as the raw emotional expression.
There’s a norse melancholy and cheerful madness that runs deep through the heart of ‘Klingra’, no more evident than on the opening three compositions. The rhythmic and melodic finesse of ‘Skjálvtin’ (The Impact), makes way for a deeply emotive ‘Litirnir’ (The Colours), before ‘Himnakroppanir’ (Celestial Bodies), is the crest on a wave that’s been building over the last two pieces, as it surges with urgent interlocking patterns, as the tension gradually builds.
Common in Nyberg’s work is the use of minimalistic patterning (akin to the techniques of Philip Glass and Arvo Pärt), which fluctuate between creating a tidal propulsion and a sense of austere fragility. This is consistently contrasted against epic post-rock swells that are both sensual and disbanding.
The team of musicians who worked with Nyberg on ‘Klingra’ come from many corners of the Nordic countries. From The Faroe Islands there is Teitur and Dánjal á Neystabø on pianos, Mikael Blak (Eivør) on bass, and Ólavur Jákupsson (Yann Tiersen) singing in Faroese. From Norway the percussionist Knut Finsrud, from Denmark Niels Skovmand on violin, Ulrik Brohuus on drums and featuring The Danish String Quartet.
Available on CD, vinyl and digital formats, the vinyl edition has been utilized as a compositional tool. Two different introductions are pressed into parallel grooves on the record, offering the listener two alternate listening experiences depending on where the needle begins on the circle. The B side ends with a closed loop that musically brings one back to the start of the album.