Norwegian experimental composer Kjetil Husebø leaves aside his Piano Transformed project where he expanded the grand piano with electronics Years of Ambiguity. Now the grand piano has been replaced with synthesizers, samplers, electronics and programming. The album was recorded and mixed in Husebø’s own Grandis studio in Oslo.

The title of the album informs its atmosphere. Husebø conceived seven ambient and cinematic soundscapes that transform the seminal work of Tangerine Dream and Brian Eno into abstract drones. All these soundscapes suggest ambiguous and enigmatic qualities, alternating between being minimalistic and maximalist, sometimes light, sometimes dark, and is also reflected by the cover art, designed by Lucas Dietrich.

On two soundscapes that open and close Years of Ambiguity – «Inhale» and «Exhale» – Husebø hosts like-minded sonic explorer trumpeter Arve Henriksen (who recorded with him the duo album Sequential Stream, Smalltown Supersound, 2022), and on «Inhale» and «Reconciliation» he also hosts guitarist Eivind Aarset. Aarset and Henriksen enrich Husebø’s sonic vision with poetic, melodic touches. All the soundscapes invite you to dive gently and slowly into Husebø’s mysterious sonic universes and let the seductive, processed and sampled electronic sounds draw the listener into a deep and dream-like state of mind.

Eyal Hareuveni

Kjetil Husebø (synth, samplers, live sampling, effects, elec, prog, edits), Eivind Aarset (g, samples, effects), Arve Henriksen (tp, synth)