Spurv produces a "wordless exploration of the enigma of existence" with transcendent second album

On June 1 Oslo, Norway's Spurv (Sparrow) will drop their latest long-player Myra (The Marshes) and I Talk To Planets was fortunate enough to spend some time with with this album this past month and let me tell you, it is nothing short of breathtaking.  The music is resplendent, it's moving, it's enchanting, it's haunting.  It is everything you would want out of an emotional post rock/metal album.

The album purports to be a "wordless exploration of the enigma of existence through intense and melodic instrumental music, noisy drones, (and) orchestral clusters..."  Myra, however, is not entirely wordless.  The final track, the English translation of which is "Everything Ends, Even at Night," begins with an excerpt from a speech given by seminal Continental philosopher Martin Heidegger of Germany.  In that excerpt Heidegger says, "Die Sterblichen sind die Menschen."  What that translates too is, "The mortals are the human beings."

Now, Heidegger's principal work is Being and Time and I'm going to give a crash course in the German philosopher's work because what he did in his lifetime so informs what Spurv is trying to communicate with Myra that I think understanding his primary teachings lie at the crux of enjoying their music thoroughly. Heidegger's philosophy attempts to conjoin two main thoughts: 1) is the notion that all beings are found in the world (including the world itself), but the idea of Being had never been examined before; and 2) building upon the work of fellow kraut thinker Edmund Husserl who coined the phenomenological slogan "to the things themselves," Heidegger ran with that idea and came up with his notion of Dasein, or the being for whom Being is a question.  Heidegger thought that all experience is grounded in "care."  That became the premise for his "existential analytic" in Being and Time.  

Photo courtesy of Lars Opstad.

How does all this relate to Spurv's new album?  In the band's own words, "Ultimately Myra is about
life and death, about that which is and that which perishes. Art poeticizes and co-creates our understanding of life and death, of the world, existence, and the human being's place among animals, plants, twigs, moss, fungi and mud. And in a time when the boundless sovereignty of the human being, the inevitability of progress and eternal growth without decay is the myth that increasingly steers humans from all corners of the world, it is up to artists to show the porous fundament of the myth, the the world is immensely more unfathomable than it appears at both first and second looks, that nothing lasts forever, but that everything gets its end, also the night."

The album consist of eight tracks, one of which, opener "A Lift In Case" (perhaps something was lost in translation), is only about 43 seconds of prelude, mostly sounds of a babbling brook, building to the horn introduction of the next track, "And a New Forest Is Brought Forward."  The sounds are vivacious and spirited.

I really want to take note of Hans-Jakob Jeremiassen's bass work on the 8:26 long "From the Depths Under the Stone."  It cut across the other instruments and stood out to me.  The song, the third track on the album, is really a quite lovely piece that flows right into the following synthesizer driven fourth cut on the album, which may be my favorite, it's so relaxing and calming, such stillness in the middle of this album that wants you to take time out and think about life and death, this tune gives you the opportunity to do that before moving on into the more heady parts of the album.

"A Pale Light Sounds" was released ahead of the full album and this is the album's penultimate track, everyone is at the top of their game, such wonderful melody, excellent harmonies, the rise and falls of the music so beautifully executed.  This is perfect music to meditate upon the transcendent, ineffable qualities of life, and death.

Photo courtesy of Lars Opstad.

It's track six and seven that really captivate me, "From the Myrtle Temple" and "The Voice Of the Old Man Breaks."  The textures are just so beautiful and hauntingly sad.  There is some wonderful guitar work here, not the screeching solos and flamboyant riffing I'm so used to hearing in the genre, but some gentle strumming and picking.  The harmonies cannot be overlooked either.  "Ole-Henrik and Kari Ronnekleiv have come with invaluable contributions that fill out and bind together the album, while Tore Ylvisaker and Ole Aleksander Halstensgard from Ulver have filled in details that draw out harmonies that we did not know were to be found in our music," noted founding member Gustav Jorgen Pedersen.

My recognition of the harmonies and soft guitar work, however, doesn't mean there isn't any riffing going on on this record.  Take the final track "Everything Ends, Even at Night," for example, there is some serious riffing going on here.

Heidegger's speech is delivered over some light piano at the outset.  The piano picks up in intensity and is joined by a cacophony of sound, suddenly the drums slice through the wall of sound, then the guitar in a traditional crushing metal riff kicks in.  This track by far is the most metallic cut on the album, but even it is melodic, and filled with wonderful harmonies by the group, and the band's use of instruments you wouldn't typically find in a rock band persists even in this, their heaviest song.

Photo courtesy of Lars Opstad.

This is one of the most melodic, trippy, transcendent albums I've heard this year, and I loved every second of it.  As far as contemporary releases to date in 2018, I compare it to Weedpecker III, Trail's Spaces and to an extent, River Cult's Halcyon Daze, all great records.  I rate this album a 93 out of 100.

"The album was written in the years that have passed since Skarntyde (No Forevers 2016) and recorded in the first weeks of 2017. With Skarntyde we felt we had come as far as we could, almost on our own, and with Myra we have taken a huge step, if not forward, then deeper, towards what we want Spurv to be," relayed Pedersen.

Spurv was founded in 2011 and consists today of Gustav Jorgen Pedersen - guitar, Hans-Jakob Jeremiassen - bass, Herman Otterlei - guitar, Simon Ljung - drums, Eirik Orevik Aadland - guitar, and Simen Eifring - trombone.  Also contributing to the album are Ole-Henrik Moe - picoletto, violin, viola, cello, Kari Ronnekleiv - violin, Cathy Donnelly - cello, Tore Ylvisaker - synth, Ole Aleksander Halstengard - fx and synth.

Spurv on Bandcamp.