Erik
Erik Wøllo’s music floats with the grace of a hawk, effortlessly riding air currents that are left painted and glistening in his wake. But what sounds effortless is actually deeply layered, intricately woven and composed with a poetic language. Sometimes Erik is acoustic, as on GUITAR NOVA, sometimes all electronic, like POLAR DRONES, but it’s on the blending of these two worlds that BLUE SKY, RED GUITARS really glistens. Erik Wollo bases most of his compositions on ostinato patterns that flicker at your consciousness like a mandala in motion, constantly cycling in prismatic shifts. Because of this modal approach, and his arching single string e-bow solos, Wøllo’s music has an Indian sensibility, without sounding Indian at all. Revealing roots that you might not suspect from most of his music, Wollo covers two songs from German electro-dance godfathers, Kraftwerk. He transforms their “In the Hall of Mirrors” and “Computerlove” into pastoral guitar chamber instrumentals. It’s difficult to make music that is at once pristine and still screams through the air, but Erik Wøllo does it on BLUE SKY, RED GUITARS, an album that is about as perfect as they come. –John Diliberto