Aurora Records is proud to present the debut album of the Norwegian guitarist Ole Martin Huser Olsen. "Lockdown Miniatures" describes an extraordinary time period of global lockdowns and crises. It is also a portrait of one of this generation's most intriguing guitarists. The debut album presents an 11-track album filled with contrasting miniatures for solo guitar.
The pieces in this album are characterized by deep musical contrasts, and have at first glance little in common other than the circumstances of their conception. Despite this, two, almost parallel musical directions gradually crystallize themselves. The first axis goes a return trip to Hamar. And the music on this journey embraces both the unfamiliar as well as the more recognizable. In other words, it gradually meets our expectations. Here Lauri Supponen's musical icon is left outside and alone in the end. Naturally. It is a different art form than the rest. It is anyway an epilogue. And a foreshadowing of future recordings. The second axis starts with Charlotte Piene's piece and ends with Lauri Supponen. The listening goes from the concrete and material to the gradually more abstract. Until we, in Supponen's icon and every-day confession, lies on the verge of the transcendental. Hopefully above. If so, Rui-Rahman's trip to Hamar might seem like a misunderstanding. Which it is. For the simple reason that he did not write that piece. It is the return, track 10, which is Jan Tariq's written piece. The prologue is Ole Martins own small trick, having transposed the whole piece a major third down to the open and resonant strings of the guitar. These two possible ways of giving ear to the structure of this recording can certainly be added to. The key has in any case been to show how the pieces converse with or contradict one another. As Joanna Rzadkowska's essay implies, this is an expression of new communities within the music. And these deep-seated contrasts should be unproblematic. For they are deeply human.
Ole Martin Huser-Olsen has a MA in Classical Guitar Performance from the Norwegian Academy of Music. As a freelance musician he has toured Norway and Europe, and collaborated with ensembles like Aksiom, Ensemble Ernst, Trondheimsolistene, Oslo String Quartet, Roma Tre Orchestra, Vilde&Inga and Knut Skram. He has recorded with LAWO Records, both as soloist and as a member of Aksiom, and with MERE Records. This is his first complete solo recording. His repertoire spans from Rennaissance to Modernism, right up to the freshest of contemporary music.
