Truck Rurâl documents a chaotic and anarchistic free improvised and supposedly folk meeting of two main figures of Oslo’s thriving experimental scene – guitarist Håvard Skaset, known from the avant-rock band MoE and collaborations with Japanese improvisers like PainJerk, Keiji Haino, Ikuro Takahashi, and drummer-percussionist Ståle Liavik Solberg, known for his collaborations with British innovative improvisers like John Russell, John Butcher, Pat Thomas, and Phil Minton, as well as being one of the driving forces of Blow Out! events in Oslo.
Solberg and Skaset have known each other for decades, but the idea for a folk duo didn’t form until their paths crossed at a local barn party in the village of Tangen. Naturally, Truck Rurâl was recorded in the stable at the same farm by the owner, Roger Berntzen.
Truck Rurâl is an intimate and acoustic album that corresponds with imaginary, fantastical, and twisted elements of blues, folk, and jazz, with generous doses of a joyful, subversive spirit. Skaset tweaks and twists the highly resonant, open tunings of his acoustic guitar, while Solberg’s free, fragmented pulses contradict and challenge his naive guitar sounds. Skaset and Solberg sound as if they had tons of fun making such supposedly simple, free, and completely fresh kind of folk music. And this pure joy is quite infectious.
Eyal Hareuveni
Håvard Skaset (acoustic guitar), Ståle Liavik Solberg (drums, percussion)
