Stein Urheim Stein Urheim

• 1Kosmoloda08:55
• 2After the Festival11:06
• 3Watch the View06:03
• 4Beijing Blues07:33
• 5Great Distances06:38
• Total Runtime40:15

Info for Stein Urheim

The Bergen-based guitarist Stein Urheim (b. 1979) made a profound impression with his album Kosmolodi, which was released in an extremely limited edition on vinyl in 2012. Now he is back, with a playful and cohesive eponymous album where he takes his very idiosyncratic instrumental music to new and subtle heights. On this album, in addition to guitars Urheim plays a wide variety of stringed instruments from different corners of the world.

Urheim’s music is permeated by a kind of exoticism. It is thoughtful without losing its sense of humour. The influences of jazz, North American and West African blues, and folk music from all over the world are obvious. Urheim himself says that among his sources of inspiration are the American composers Lou Harrison and Steve Reich, Chinese gu qin music, langeleik (Norwegian zither) music from Valdres, and Ornette Coleman.

While Kosmolodi was recorded over a period of time in a number of different places, Urheim decided to take a different approach this time. Much of the album was recorded with sound technician Audun Strype in Lysøen, the magnificent home of the legendary violinist Ole Bull outside of Bergen, in January 2013. The wooden house, ice-cold at that time of year, has a fantastic atmosphere and warm acoustics. The recording was later completed and mixed at Duper Studio in Bergen with technician and producer Jørgen Træen.

Stein Urheim has already released two critically acclaimed albums on Bugge Wesseltoft’s Jazzland label together with singer and musician Mari Kvien Brunvoll. He has been a member of Gabriel Fliflet’s band Åresong and HP Gundersen’s highly respected drone band The Last Hurrah.

Stein Urheim, guitars, flutes, harmonica, slide tamboura, fretless bouzouki, gu qin, mandolin, langeleik, charango, banjo, analog synths and effects
Jørgen Træen, modular synth and effects

Stein Urheim
The Bergen-based guitarist Stein Urheim´s name has appeared in an increasing number of contexts in recent years. In 2009 he released his debut album Three Sets of Music and the following year he received the Vossajazz festival-Award.

He has toured and released 3 critically acclaimed duo albums with singer Mari Kvien Brunvoll, Daydream Communtiy (2011), Daydream Twin (2013) and For Individuals Facing The Terror Of Cosmic Loneliness (2015), on the Jazzland label.

He was a member of Gabriel Fliflet´s Åresong band (2010-2011), and participated on The Last Hurrah´s debut album (2011) on Rune Grammofon. He has also written for, arranged and played on several albums by Steady Steele (2002-2006), and worked with numerous other bands and music projects, including Tom Sawyer & The Huckleberry Finns (2004-2007), Bearfarm (2006-2012), Thea Hjelmeland´s Solar Plexus (2014) and Erlend Apneseth´s Nattsongar (2017).

This album contains no booklet.