Einmal Immer (once and forever, in German) is a new, Norwegian, Bergen-based trio featuring singular, genre-defying and highly inventive improvisers – Espen Sommer Eide (of Alog) on electronics, samples, field recordings, and loops, and vintage Buchala modular synth, Stephan Meidell (of Strings & Timpani and Erlend Apneseth Trio) on Baritone guitar and electronics, and Øyvind Hegg-Lunde (of Building Instrument and Erlend Apneseth Trio) on drums and percussion. The self-titled album is the trio’s debut album, even though the trio began to play together in 2013, focusing on high-risk intensity of live, free improvised music with little regard for recording or composing for an album.

Einmal Immer’s subversive, irreverent spirit was captured on the album. The six pieces, all titled after distinct colors, are constructed as a long suite. All pieces rebel against common conventions and insist on suggesting their own, colorful sonic palettes, layered puzzles of labyrinthine sounds comprised of the legendary Buchla modular synth, feedback, and loops of electric guitar, otherworldly electric pulses, and hypnotic, infectious percussive patterns. It often sounds as if Einmal Immer is operating an underground dance party for aliens in a faraway galaxy in deep space.

But the chance-dynamics of Einmal Immer make its music much more interesting, reflective, and ambitious. The music references the mythical German krautrock of the ’60s and ’70s with its stubborn and ritualistic, repetitive, and often tribal dance-like pulses. Einmal Immer focuses on pure sound and borrows fragmented samples from forgotten folk vinyls, field recordings, and prehistoric computer-generated voices. It opts for intuition and sudden, exotic magic over reason and intellect, and creates sexy but strange, timeless, stimulating and hallucinogenic music.

Eyal Hareuveni

Espen Sommer Eide (electronics, Buchla modular synthesizer), Stephan Meidell (baritone guitar, electronics), Øyvind Hegg-Lunde (drums, percussion)