The more one tries to understand »Heliographs’« magical allurement by exploring its background, the more mysterious the album of 37 minutes becomes. Erik Honoré will turn 48 in December – and »Heliographs« is his debut as a solo artist. He is a man with quite a past and various connections: As a musician, he has released records together with Eivind Aarset (here on the guitar), Arve Henriksen (trumpet), with David Sylvian and last but not least half a dozen albums together with Jan Bang (electro). He is the main producer for the band Velvet Belly and has a great reputation as a sound engineer. On the side, he has made a name for himself as a writer, having published three novels at the beginning of the millennium. Erik Honoré’s main musical method can be called improvised live-sampling, tried and tested at the Punkt Festival, founded by him and Han Bang in 2005. It’s taking place in his hometown, Kristiansand, at the Southern tip of Norway and each concert at the festival is being remixed – live, in a room next door. There are different faces coming alive in his music: Jeffrey Bruinsma’s violin or Ingar Zach‘s percussion; the fluty cooing and the insistent tenderness of Sidsel Endresen’s vocals, giving the whole record its narrative framework. Like buoys, they are standing up straight in an ocean of sounds, and their whole lives seem to take place behind a veil of time, as if they were enchanted echoes. With every track, he is perfecting the mix between breaking lights and Film Noir, dreamy loops and sacred silence: Charles Ives and Brian Eno, Anton Webern and Dictaphone, Jacaszek and Sawako. Erik Honoré has found a special perspective, allowing him to dim this incredibly broad range towards a hyper-sensitive and captivating calmness. His imperturbable tenderness is great sound design, making the world appear weathered in the most noble sense and creating a singular musical event.
Heliographs
