The Norwegian young power trio PHØNIX, previously known as guitarist-composer Emil Storløkken Åse’s PHOENIX, has been performing at stages and clubs all across Norway since 2021. Storløkken Åse is the son of musical royalty – keyboard player Ståle Storløkken (of Supersilent and Terje Rypdel band, who took part in the recording of the new album) and vocal artist Tone Åse, is joined by baritone sax player Jenny Frøysa and drummer August Glännestrand (who plays in Liv Andrea Hauge trio and with Frøysa in the trio Leibblaa with Storløkken Åse’s brother vibes and keyboard player Amund Storløkken Åse ). The trio blends rock with jazz, psychedelia, prog, avant-garde, and pop.
Intergalloptic Roundtrip is the sophomore album of PHØNIX, following Under the Sun (Sonic Transmissions, 2022), and it was recorded at Øra Studio in Trondheim in December 2023. The new album offers a more ambitious vision as PHØNIX expands its sound with instruments like Storløkken Åse’s baritone guitar and piano, Frøysa’s bass clarinet, bass synth, accordion and recorder, along with electronic effects on the baritone saxophone, and Glännestrand’s drum machines. The new sound of PHØNIX is larger than its parts, deeper and layered.
The music for Intergalloptic Roundtrip was composed and arranged by Storløkken Åse and tells the epic story of Cowperson (the protagonist who was introduced in Under the Sun in a journey in the Arizona desert) who now goes on a space adventure in the spaceship Horseback, and finds out how that he can face the challenges of such a demanding journey. It is a dramatic and eclectic story, tied by motifs that reappear in different forms throughout the album. The music corresponds with Ennio Morricone’s orchestral soundtracks, the power guitar riffs of Jimi Hendrix and Rypdal (in his The Chasers Era), and more spacious – literally – Ry Cooder-tinged deserted landscapes, the seminal baritone sax playing of Mats Gustafsson, Krautrock repetitive patterns and the Hamid Drake-like propulsive and irresistible rhythmic drive and grooves. PHØNIX plays ecstatic music with an infectious, joyful energy, a kind of music that wish to experience live, from a close range, when your limbs move involuntarily along with the music.
Eyal Hareuveni
Emil Storløkken Åse (guitars, piano, backing vocal), Jenny Frøysa (baritone saxophone, bass clarinet, bass synthesizer, accordion, recorder, backing vocal), August Glännestrand (drums, percussion, drum machine), Ella Marie R. Wolden (lead vocal, backing vocal), Tuva Halse (violin), Live Sunniva Smidt (cello), Nicolas Leirtrø (double bass), Elias Langseth (backing vocal), Hans Ona Gjul (backing vocal), Jakob Leirvik (backing vocal)
