Following the first album with elb HANG musik, entitled "hang'n'bass," the second, titled "into the arctic," is now being released on the Timezone label. This time, however, the focus is on the particularly warm-sounding SHELLOPAN from France—in this case, an instrument that even features sound grooves on the underside of its metal body—and thus a range of two octaves.
elb HANG musik has undertaken something special with its new album: a musical aural journey to the Canadian Arctic. The predominantly song-like, yet also onomatopoeic tracks were created primarily as accompaniment to a reading by freelance author Petra Krumme (published in the Süddeutsche Zeitung, among others), who spent nine months with the Gwich'in First Nation tribe in the Arctic wilderness north of the Arctic Circle. She processed her stay there in impressive texts that inspired the music. For the album, the individual pieces were enriched with additional instruments. Not only the Shellopan, the integral, and Dorian Hang can be heard, but also the mystical Whalophone, as well as various percussion instruments, electric piano, expansive sounds, electronic grooves, the occasional (polyphonic) vocals—and an unusually sounding mandolin.
Between the pieces of elb HANG musik, or even within a single track, cheerful moods alternate with melancholic and tense ones. The result is a diverse concept album, atmospherically dense and groovy at the same time. The great musician Ramón Lazzaroni plays flute and double bass on some pieces. For this journey, all you need to do is close your eyes – and listen!
01 into the arctic
02 journey
03 house cleaning
04 Snow Waltz
05 tolerance
06 snowflakes
07 meltwater
08 caribou
09 remembrance
10 Northern Lights
11 Sunday Moaning
12 Where are the drums?
13 to the stars
14 cool places
15 Snow Waltz (live version)
