Qomolangma is the Tibetan name for Mother Earth Goddess, an all-embracing and all-encompassing being around us all, an earthly and heavenly entity we, residents of the Western world call the Mount Everest mountain range. Qomolangma is also the debut album of two Scandinavian uncompromising and fearless improvisers – Gothenburg-based double bass master Nina De Heney, known for her duo with pianist Lisa Ullén, and vocal and sound artist Qarin Wikström, known for the post-everything trio Shitney and her solo project Q. Like the Qomolangma, De Heney and Wikström’s music evokes inner visions of high mountains, low floating clouds and a sense of weightlessness.
De Heney and Wikström began to work together five years ago and immediately felt that their intimate dynamics were sincere and direct. Qomolangma was recorded in one day of improvisation in a most earthly location, at Studio Element in Gothenburg. It is released as a limited edition of 200 vinyls and a download option. The artwork was by local musician and visual artist Dan Fröberg, co-founder of Outerdisk.
The ten improvisations, all titled with Tibetan colorful and suggestive names for Himalayan mountains, offer ten intriguing and imaginative conversations and deeply personal thoughts, where De Heney and Wikström dance through light, sound and darkness, and through radiant joy and deepest pain. Often they sound like one, inseparable sonic entity, and the resonating, deep-toned bowing of De Heney’s double bass is extended by Wikström’s voice and inventive usage of electronics, and back again and beyond. Acoustic electronics meet electronic acoustics in an inspired and most touching dream state. De Heney and Wikström do not only mirror their most immediate instincts and their vulnerable expressions and vibrations but suggest a cosmic mirror of eternal creation, from the heavenly Mother Earth Goddess to our daily lives.
Eyal Hareuveni
Qarin Wikström (v, elec), Nina de Heney (b, cymbal)
