Ah, Norway! Where the synthesizers never set and the northern lights twinkle like a great celestial arpeggiator. Thomas Moen Hermansen, self-appointed Prins of the North (apparently), whose cosmic disco bona fi des run every bit as deep as his more notorious pals Lindstrøm and Todd Terje, has been in an expansive mood of late—though, what else is new—following up October’s killer triple-disc Paradise Goulash mix with this 100-minute odyssey.
He’s billed it as his “ambient” album, but it’s far from the placid, new-agey dronefest that implies. Actually, it’s only negligibly mellower than his previous full-lengths. Almost every track features some percussive elements; the album’s back half boasts several eminently boogie-able struts, and even the beatless passages flicker with near-constant motion. That said, it does function gorgeously as a lush, entrancing mood piece, one that might pleasantly percolate along in the background, but could just as easily hold you rapt in the detailed folds of its layered, continuously evolving subarctic suites.
—K. Ross Ho ffman
