Splashgirl & Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe - More Human (2024)

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Splashgirl & Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe - More Human (2024)

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The seventh album from Splashgirl, “More Human” is made in collaboration with singer/sound artist Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, and producer Randall Dunn. The album title, “More Human”, explores the role of humanity in a society increasingly reliant on technology, where artists face direct competition from artificial intelligence.

Founded in 2003 in Oslo, the trio consists of musicians Andreas Stensland Løwe (piano and electronics), Jo Berger Myhre (double bass and tone generator) and Andreas Lønmo Knudsrød (drums, percussion and sounds). Since 2007, they have played a large number of concerts in Europe, the USA and Japan, collaborating with musicians such as Sidsel Endresen, Jan Bang, Eyvind Kang, Mari Kvien Brunvoll, Randall Dunn and Timothy Mason. And now it's vocalist and sound artist Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe and producer Randall Dunn with whom they have collaborated across the Atlantic.

When the recording of the album was ready, in Ocean Sound Recordings in the autumn of 2021, the two Americans were refused entry due to the pandemic, and the plans had to be changed. Splashgirl was to record in Ocean Sound while the two Americans were to record in Circular Ruin in New York. An important aspect of making this more than just an exchange of files across the Atlantic was that the recording was to take place within the same limited period of time. So both teams went into the studio on Monday 29 November 2021 and continued until 5 December. The process went roughly like this: Team A recorded a piece of music that was sent across the ocean for processing and overdubs at team B. Every other day, the order was reversed, some tracks were improvised according to instructions on tempo, tuning, mode or key from producer Dunn, while others were composed in advance by Myhre and Løwe.

This has resulted in six musical tracks that give no sense of having been made both in Sunnmøre and in New York. The six tracks feel well-crafted, as if everyone involved was in the same studio, and that the music was created as a whole - there and then.

The music is relatively electronic throughout, but with Løwe's piano as an important ingredient.

Now, you might say that this type of music is the kind you like to put on in the background, and which, surely, the odd "hip" café can let play in the system while noisy young people can barely hear it. And in that case, I think that's completely the wrong use of this music. Splashgirl and their two American friends are musicians who deserve much more than to be placed as background music. This is fine music in the more electronic part of today's jazz, and with piano and bass at the forefront, along with fine drumming, and with the addition of electronic elements from New York, this has become an intelligent release with six excellent compositions/tracks, where the three musicians in the trio play the main role, and where the Americans help to perfect and expand the music.

Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, vocals
Andreas Stensland Løwe, piano, electronics
Jo Berger Myhre, double bass, tone generator
Andreas Lønmo Knudsrød, drums, percussion