Eric Wollo - Emotional Landscapes

Artist:Eric Wollo
Album: Emotional Landscapes
Year: 2003
Genre:Ambient, Instrumental, Electronica
Country:Norway

Beautifully sparse and evocative soundscapes perfect for whatever cerebral tasks one may be embarked upon. Subtle melodies meld with cool auras and unimposing textures in an entirely satisfying love letter from Europe's far northern latitudes.It is great for those times of contemplation, creativity or meditation. The music is outstanding, multi-layered and diverse. This is not a drone-like dirge. It is more like a series of interesting walks along the beach, with and without people.

Erik Wollo (born 1961) is a Norwegian composer and musician, guitarist and synthesist. He has been a professional artist since 1980. His musical background covers a wide range of styles from rock and jazz, to experimental electronic and classical music.

Amazon.com
The title is underwhelming, but the music is an ecstatic journey traversing aurora borealis spacescapes and quiet ambient moods. Erik Wollo is a Norwegian guitarist and synthesist out of the Mike Oldfield tradition, building a 21st century orchestra layering acoustic, electric, and synthesized guitars. A musician with a delicate touch, Wollo sometimes builds quiet lines out of violin-like sustains that echo in space soliloquies. While his rhythms rarely get above a slow-chill, Wollo's solos often burn with a dark intensity. Tracks like "Second Totem" have a quiet heroism about them, the sound of impending adventure. "Sounds of the Seen, Pt.1," one of the more dynamic tracks, begins as a haunting adagio for cello, before launching into a crushing electronica assault that ends in the sound of humanity moving, with location recordings Wollo made under the World Trade Center a few days prior to 9-11. It's a dose of grounding reality in a music that seems to constantly hover just above the firmament, rooted in imagination. --John Diliberto