Ripen

Black vinyl in pantone green sleeve. Sounds divine.

Emil Palme is an experimental composer and guitarist whose practice is rooted in Scandinavian folklore and experimental music.

Ripen – his debut solo album – follows many acclaimed outings with his guitar duo Yngle, as well as performances with the late Manuel Göttsching and with Clarissa Connelly in her touring band.

Stroking and scratching the strings of his instrument with self-made bows of stone, the Danish artist conjures mesmerising ceremonial patterns which unfold in the misty nether zone between composition and improvisation.

There is a primeval quality to the music on Ripen, and a vital simplicity which begs comparison to certain stark turns by Morton Feldman or more recently the Malone/O’Malley coalition. There is also an arid sensuality at play, akin to the evocative power of Ry Cooder’s ‘Paris, Texas’ soundtrack or Daniel Lanois most spartan moments on ‘Belladonna’.

Ripen is a kind of mystical treatise on the act of “completing” – the treacherous paths that nature dictates all living things must walk, and the inevitable disintegration of purpose that comes after a period of toil.