Svalbard. Niklas Paschburg

The third instrumental album is not from The Netherlands but is an even more mysterious album by Niklas Paschburg. I hope .No is paying attention, as all three albums can go straight into a few Kairos episodes over the coming months.

Paschburg is from Germany, born in Hamburg. Of the three albums Svalbard is the most direct and modern. Around the piano sounds and soundscapes have been built. There are even passages that make me expect a complete rock band to kick in any second, only to drop away in opening song 'If', all of a sudden, having reached the end of the song. That makes 'If' an exciting song, something that I could not write on the first two contributions to the blog today.

Svalbard is Paschburg's second album, after releasing 'Oceanic' in 2018. Written in the winter of 2018-19 off the Arctic Norwegian coast but recorded with producer Andy Barlow, one half of Lamb. This explains the electronics surrounding Paschburg's piano. The electronics give the compositions a totally unique outlook. At heart there is a man and his piano but they can make way for the atmospherics just as easily, to return later in the composition.

Promo photo: Natalia Luzenko

Followers of this blog know that this kind of music is not my direct favourite, but from there on it is easy to conclude that Svalbard is an intriguing album. Perhaps not for the whole of the album, certainly for long enough. There is a difference with 'Solo Piano' and 'Gliese'. I can lose myself for a while in those albums but without remembering what I've heard. Disrespectful, it's tinkering on a piano to me, no matter how good and beautiful. Svalbard makes me work and pay attention. As there is no singing, it is hard to reproduce a melody as well. What sticks out to me are impressions. The atmosphere of an eastern, 'Merry Christmas Mr. Lawrence' kind of melody, of a French accordion, with weird sounds mixed into the whole. As if I'm listening to Kairos already. Yes, .No should really listen to 'Little Orc'.

So three instrumental piano based albums in one day and yet so different. All three I can bring to your attention though as worth while listening to in their own right. Beauty is not necessarily played on a(n electric) guitar. There's another fun fact. All three were released on the same day, 28-02-2020.

Wo.

You can listen to and buy Svalbard here:

https://niklaspaschburg.bandcamp.com/album/svalbard


or listen to our Spotify Playlist to find out what we are writing about:

https://open.spotify.com/user/glazu53/playlist/6R9FgPd2btrMuMaIrYeCh6?si=KI6LzLaAS5K-wsez5oSO2g