Wollo, Erik

Artist: Erik Wollo
P: 2017
Different Spaces from renowned Norwegian electronic musician Erik Wøllo is a diverse and sweeping 2-CD release. Spanning 2 hours and 45 minutes, his 21st full-length album is a monumental statement ranging from slowly-drifting kaleidoscopic passages, epic soaring guitar melancholy, upbeat ever-changing sequenced cycles, and charismatic compelling melodies. Possessing a sense of drama and storytelling, the 22 new compositions explore and expand upon his 35 years of musical experience. Using electric guitar as his primary melodic instrument, Wøllo creates sustained and seamless tapestries revealing wide-ranging and wide-angled compositions masterfully orchestrated across two disks. The music traverses the different spaces that occupy an artist’s creative thoughts across mesmerizing landscapes of distinctive panoramas, rhythmic realms, and engaging, engulfing atmospheres. Erik says, “I wanted to do it differently this time: longer pieces, open and extended, spreading out the sonic elements and transitions in time. I aimed to combine everything into a continuous and balanced aural flow, together with my ethereal tones and timbres. Last year I worked exclusively on this album. I composed a lot of material; there were over 40 tracks to choose from and to really express the variety, a 2-CD release was clearly what I had in mind.“ Different Spaces is electronic music with an evocative and symbolic approach. Erik’s background in 70s progressive rock shines through. The sequencer aesthetic and other aspects of the era’s technology form the basic foundation on many of these tracks. Modern pulsing and immersive soundscapes provide measured momentum to steadily move through the morphing patterns and textures. “If music or art does not send me to a certain spot or a setting, I am not very interested,” Erik comments. “It’s a sense of being somewhere. This is a very important part on this release: the awareness of a connection with place, subjectivity and feeling. Within this, I delve into my curiosity about what’s in my subconscious. In the subconscious there are all kinds of iconic sounds, visions and mythic fragments.” This vast release takes the listener to different places and spaces on 22 uniquely compelling auditory episodes.

Artist: Erik Wollo
P: 2015
LTD 300
Echo: a reflection of sound, arriving at the listener some time after the direct sound. Tides: the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of gravitational forces exerted by the Moon, Sun, and rotation of the Earth.
ECHOTIDES is highly engaging and meditative with a delicate and finely structured symbiosis between the slow motion atmospheres, sparse melodic lines and detailed rhythms (accentuated by the contributions from percussionist Kouame Sereba on two tracks.)
"Echo and tides, these two natural phenomena inspired this music," Erik says. "They were in the back of my mind as I worked. Incidents surround us all the time; life develops in cycles, oceans move in cycles; the constantly moving, ebbing and flowing present, forever repetitive. I use these terms as metaphors for the sound and structures in the compositions." Released in an extremely limited collector's edition of 300, this EP consists of 7 new tracks covering 43 minutes.
"I started this project by recording various loops using my guitars and the two new special effect pedal boards that I assembled," Erik continues. "I collected various brand's pedals and devices, put together in a chain. Devices for looping, harmonizing and other effects.
"I spent several months of improvising, just collecting ideas. I then selected the best suited pieces and augmented them with sequenced synthesizers and percussion elements. The whole idea for the project was to create a sustained and free floating selection of tracks built upon interacting fragments of sound and processed textures, all blended together and forming a constant morphing endless flow."
ECHOTIDES is deeply expansive and contemplative electronic music. These sonic identities reflect the ever-changing alternatives in nature and our environments. It's music that is rich in depth and colors with echoes of memories and imaginary places, epic dimensions and a minimalist's restrained elegance.

Artist: Erik Wollo
P: 2007
Norwegian guitarist and synthesist Erik Wøllo is back with a fine collection of carefully crafted compositions. Whereas Red Guitars, Blue Guitars was built around that instrument, Elevations goes back to Wøllo's trademark sound of creatively seamlessly blending guitars, synthesizers and programming. These are light, lilting melodies that you can hum long afterward. Lush atmospheric textures abound, wrapping each song in a gentle cocoon of sound. As on the last album, colors remain a major theme. “Red Odyssey” is imbued with warmth and light, as percussion takes a wavering guitar lead on a meandering carefree journey. “Blue Odyssey” is colder, sharper, the percussion punching its way through, though the melody remains bright. “Green Odyssey” is softer and moves along at a carefree pace. In between are a number of highly accessible tunes for easy listening, some rhythmic some not, some lighter some a shade darker, although lighter is the order of the day for the most part.

Artist: Erik Wollo
P: 2003
A delicate musical connection between physical environments and landscapes of the soul.
Inspired by memories of his native Norway, Erik Wøllo offers an intricate and profound musical interpretation of the visual and tangible as a metaphor for the internal esoteric landscapes of the imagination. EMOTIONAL LANDSCAPES features deep floating ambiences, infused with the unique vitality of Wøllo's guitars and electronics. A magnificent vista, waiting to be heard.

Artist: Erik Wollo
P: 2010
Gateway is both lyrical and rhythmic, emphasizing melodic and structural formations; modern electronic music explores vast panoramas and limitless horizons. Graceful chiming themes ring out against ambient textures and delicate chord structures with a highly listenable appeal. It is a gentle musical journey through soundscapes of synthesizers and electric guitars. Orchestrated layers of sounds make this a deep listening experience where new details are discovered on each successive listening.
"There is always a meditative attitude," Erik reflects, "recollections from dreams and reality suggesting the mysterious. Every artist has their own unique inner landscape that emulates where they were born and raised, influencing the creative expression. By reflecting all the different kinds of music that you have been hearing through your lifetime, Gateway is a mirror of time."
Gateway has 12 tracks carefully sequenced like parts in a symphony or as the soundtrack to a film exploring new undiscovered places. The cinematic songs have unique moods from piece to piece beginning with gentle "Land of Myths," a slow introduction to the story. Wøllo continues with the more rhythmic "First Arrival," launching elements later refined as separate songs. The titles all describe the journey: "A Sublime Place," "The Mental Trail" and "Wetlands." The album ends with a long and sustaining piece, "Thule," suggesting a trip even further north into the future. An open end to a sonic journey.
This album is a new era of Wøllo's music where emotional atmospheres flow into expansive ambient textures. An album that combines intense and serene passages with masterful performances. It is New Instrumental Music with both symphonic qualities and more sublime, varied dynamic structures. Soar in abstract space elements with the unmistakable style of this critically acclaimed artist.

Artist: Erik Wollo
P: 2000
Acoustic guitar music. Rhythmic and Melodic music.
Guitar Nova represent a new direction in the career of Erik Wollo. On this album he goes back and picks up his acoustic guitars again, like he did on his very first albums. Various acoustic guitars that appears as an ensemble of new and exciting musical landscapes. These tracks reflects a musical experience that covers a wide range of styles. Here are fragments from jazz, classical, etnic and ambient music, carefully blended together in a new and higly original musical content.
All music performed by Erik Wollo on diverse acoustic guitars and stringed instruments. On one of the tracks, higly acclaimed norwegian jazzmusician Jon Eberson appears, as a guest soloist on acoustic guitar. All music is composed and produced by Erik Wollo in his Wintergarden Studio in Norway, and reflects his long time experience with modern digital studiotechnology.

Artist: Erik Wollo
P: 2018
INFINITE MOMENTS is an hour of ambient electronic music from veteran Norwegian composer Erik Wøllo. Across nearly four decades, 40 albums encompass Erik’s unique mix of layered synthesizers, melodic guitars and expansive percussion. This time he takes a different approach — there are no synthesizers! The album is performed entirely on electric guitars processed with the diffused sustain of the EBow and layered note structures of harmonizers. No rhythms, only long, vast and engaging soundscapes. Minimal, extended and infinite in its essence, the album is a meditative inward journey of stillness and reflection — an emotional mapping of the mind, beautifully weightless and contemplative. These six long, luminous and timeless moments are built upon multiple independent guitar loops of various length, overlapping and merging into slow drifting sections of continuously evolving combinations. Each loop was recorded live in the studio using a different type of guitar creating rich ensembles of unity. It’s a detailed musical language of floating guitars: hearing the strings resonate and vibrate between the fingers and the Ebow creates brilliant and sparkling tones that shine and stand out as unique and organic. “I envisioned a concept using just a few essential instrumentations,” Erik reflects, “with a minimalist approach where the melody and accompaniment are one. Each track has its own identity, yet all have a similar calm, longing and endless feeling. The color palette is essentially more reduced than my other work, and the tracks retain a similar suspended level throughout. Here are no crescendos or high points. This is not so much about a narrative telling a story, but rather more like a satellite floating free and weightless in space.” Erik continues, “When I listen to these tracks with these ever-changing structures I experience a static state of mind that continues unchanged. It could go on and last forever never ending where time seems to stand still. It is very focused where nothing else seems to matter.” INFINITE MOMENTS is a new adventure in sonic dimension from Erik Wøllo. It’s a contemplative solitude, a dreamy portal of shimmering and everlasting emotions. 

Artist: Erik Wollo
P: 2021
The new album from renowned Norwegian ambient/electronic artist Erik Wollo evolved from layers of sustained guitars inspiring infinite space and a minimal essence, creating a spell of slow, melodic calming soundscapes. The sustained Ebow guitars aim the music in a totally new expansive direction with melodic elements, rhythmic arpeggio loops and some percussion added to the treated guitar ensembles. The mood sets the emotional course: vast and spacious, minimalistic and sparse in character. NORTH STAR is an inward journey of stillness and reflection. Music that shifts between contemplation and intimacy, impulse and reflection.

Artist: Erik Wollo
P: 2021
LTD 300
Following his acclaimed 2020 collaboration with American synthesist Michael Stearns (CONVERGENCE, PRO371) renowned Norwegian ambient / electronic artist Erik Wøllo returns with 2021’s RECURRENCE. An intensely detailed fusion of elegant compositions and deep atmospherics, it’s a gleaming sonic journey — a timeless dreamlike pilgrimage revisiting the sound and feel of past moments with an essence of eternal renewal.

Delicately evocative synthesizer atmospheres are skillfully balanced with pulsating rhythmic passages. Wøllo’s trademark processed electric guitars, synthesizers, occasional acoustic guitars and percussion create a cohesive structure that bonds the pieces into a warm, breathing continuum. Conceived to unfold as one unit, the tracks are movements drawing the listener into a deep, adventurous flow.