Nightclouds

Description

Ellen Arkbro’s fourth album, Nightclouds, collects five solo organ improvisations, recorded across Central Europe in 2023-24. Nightclouds is more overtly romantic and introspective than her previous efforts, though it remains firmly rooted in the rigour and precision that has come to define the concept of Ellen Arkbro. Extending her previous explorations of spatialized harmony, tactility and texture, Arkbro also draws from sacred music, ECM-style jazz and minimalism, evoking a fresh intimacy and tonality. Her decelerated chordal improvisations envelop the listener in dirge-like washes, while her close-mic recordings reveal the rough, haptic grain of the reeds, bringing the listener both inside and outside of the sound. Evoking the duos of Kjell Johnsen and Jan Garbarek, or La Monte Young and Tony Conrad’s rendition of Euringer and Harmer’s cowboy song “Oh Bury Me Not”, Nightclouds channels spiritual pathos through a rigorously sober architecture.