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We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Firstness

by O

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  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

      70 NOK  or more

     

  • Cassette + Digital Album

    Recorded on TDK SA60 High Bias tape. Vintage cassette shell with laser etching. Comes in a Maltese cross box in chipboard.

    Includes unlimited streaming of Firstness via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days

      150 NOK or more 

     

1.
I 07:26
2.
II 09:23
3.
III 05:39
4.
III II I 22:29

about

O’s music exists in a liminal zone between songs and acoustic free-form. It could be described as melted folk, with an unorthodox blend of guitar, the baroque instrument viola da gamba, percussion and voice. On "Firstness", O sets out to explore what a song is and could be. The result is a deeply personal synthesis of conventional song form and experimental improvisation.

Emerging out of Oslo’s improv scene, O has kept a flexible line-up when performing live, thus continuously allowing for the possibility to explore new aspects of their music. "Firstness" was created and recorded in close collaboration with drummer Jan Martin Gismervik, whose distinctive sound on this release merges effortlessly with O’s expression.

Tracks I, II and III were recorded live in the studio. Seeking to explore the cassette format’s possibilities, track III II I is released as the reversed version of the audio on the first three tracks. Both sides of the cassette have deliberately been left unnamed – omitting the traditional A and B – thereby enhancing the potential circularity that this analogue format embodies. The circular theme could also be seen as referencing not only the band’s name, but also the way they choose to present their music live: Always performed as one long piece, with snippets of previously played songs recurring along the way, as if to decompose the conventional song form.

The title, "Firstness", is borrowed from the American philosopher Charles S. Peirce. His concept of firstness stems from semiotics. Peirce describes it as "an instance of that kind of consciousness which involves no analysis, comparison or any process whatsoever (… ) It has its own quality which consists of nothing else". Firstness means the unanalyzed, instantaneous, immediate feeling of that which is perceived. It’s a fitting description of the state of alertness that making or perceiving music can bring about – the core of O’s creative process, both live and on this album.

(The quote is taken from page 152 in Peirce, C. S., Hartshorne, C., Weiss, P., & Burks, A. W. (1960). Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce: Edited by Charles Hartshorne and Paul Weiss: Principles of Philosophy and Elements of Logic (Vol. 1). Harvard University Press.)

credits

released June 10, 2022

HELEN LOUISE SOLBERG / acoustic guitar, voice
INGA MARGRETE AAS / viola da gamba
JAN MARTIN GISMERVIK / drums

All music by O

All songs and words by Helen Louise Solberg
II contains a quote from the lyrics to "Little Wing" by Neil Young
III is based on an untitled poem from "Etterlatte dikt" by Tor Ulven

Recorded by Espen Reinertsen at Flerbruket, Hemnes, Norway, January 2020
Mixed by Espen Reinertsen in Oslo, Norway, March 2020
Mastered by Helge Sten at Audio Virus LAB, Oslo, Norway, April 2020

Produced by O

Artwork by Espen Friberg

With support from Creo – the union for arts and culture

Released by dBUT inter@mbience

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

O image

O Oslo, Norway

The Norwegian acoustic free folk duo O consists of Oslo based musicians Inga Margrete Aas and Helen Louise Solberg. Their music exists in a liminal zone between songs and acoustic free-form, with an unorthodox blend of guitar, the baroque instrument viola da gamba and voice. They are excited to be joined by drummer Jan Martin Gismervik for their debut album, Firstness.

Photo: Solberg Aas ... more

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