Zwei Jahre nach seinem Debüt “The Haze of Sleeplessness” veröffentlicht Keyboarder Ståle Storløkken sein zweites Soloalbum. Im Unterschied zum Vorgänger, bei dem verschiedene Synthesizer als Klangquelle fungierten, basiert Ghost Caravan ausschließlich auf Orgelklängen. Die Stücke wurden auf einer in der Bauweise des 18. Jahrhunderts konstruierten Orgel in der Steinkjer Kirke in der gleichnamigen Kleinstadt nahe Trondheim gespielt und von Stian Westerhus aufgenommen. Die zehn über ein inneres Referenzsystem verknüpften Tracks entfalten eine große Bandbreite an Stilen und Spielweisen, die nur gelegentlich an Kirchenmusik erinnern, viel Raum für luftiges Rauschen lassen und den am Synthesizer geschulten Musiker mehr als einmal durchscheinen lassen. “Ghost Caravan” erscheint auf CD und LP bei Hubro Music.
“There’s not so much of a relationship to [The Haze of Sleeplessness]. That album was more based on improvised ideas that were tweaked and arranged , while this one is all improvised with almost no editing at all. Everything you hear is from the church organ, with no additional instruments. The basic concept of the record, and the arrangement of the titles and pieces, is done in such a way that they alternate between a fluent, “on the move”, abstract mood and a more recognisable, concrete and ground0ed mood. At the same time it should be so open that listeners will hopefully have their own unique experience. The organ at Steinkjer is not a big organ but it has some really nice sounds, with a number of quirks and mechanical eccentricities that suit my music.” (Ståle Storløkken)
“What Ghost Caravan does share with its predecessor is a seemingly limitless acoustic space for the listener’s imagination to roam in, with Storlokken creating a cavernous cathedral of sound. The audio dynamics span an enormous range, capable of stretching from the quietest breathy whisper to a basso profundo squawk or scream, sometimes within seconds of each other. Similarly, the incredible variety of sounds that Storløkken coaxes from the organ can defy rational analysis, with the resolutely analogue instrument appearing to echo the industrial, found-sounds of clanking machinery or buzzing electronics that one might expect to encounter through digital sampling or the tape-based experiments of musique concrete.” (Hubro)