Slovakian guitarist-sound designer David Kollar and Norwegian trumpeter Arve Henriksen collaborative project began after the two met at at the Spectaculare festival in Prague on January 2017. Henriksen played there with Austrian guitarist-sound artist Christian Fennesz and Koller presented a solo performance. On August 2017 Kollar and Henriksen performed twice together at the Hevhetia festival in Košice, Slovakia and decided to record an album.

Kollar began sketching the basic improvised parts of «llusion of a Separate World» on December 2017. He thought about these basic pieces as musical diaries, inspired from «life’s trials and tribulations or from the environment». Later Henriksen layered his own trumpet, voice and electronics over these pieces. The geographical distance did not affect the intimate spirit of this project or its haunting, exploratory soundscapes.

Kollar and Henriksen share common sonic Worlds. Their clever, delicate use of electronics and Henriksen’s fragile voice add a subtle, orchestral dimension to the gentle, ethereal soundscapes. Some of these suggestive soundscapes like «Chimera» and «Roving Observer», the latter is inspired by Russian experimental director Andrei Tarkovsky, have a profound, unsettling cinematic quality, as of a prophecy-warning about a dystopian, environment reality, passing through many barren, desolate sceneries. The spacey, sparse ambiance of pieces like «The Spiral Turn» and «Solarization» intensify the sonic perspective of watching our planet from a secured, faraway distance. Henriksen and Kollar most poetic, collaborative language is offered on «Castles in the Air» where Henriksen sings softly through his trumpet a mysterious, beautiful theme and Kollar adds atmospheric guitar lines and minimalist rhythmic patterns.

Eyal Hareuveni

David Kollar (g, elec, synth), Arve Henriksen (tp, v, dr, keys, elec)