Owl

Mille Feuille was recorded during three days at Flerbruket, an old school builiding at Hemnes which now is a workplace for artists of all sorts. OWL (Signe Emmeluth & Karl Bjorå) worked here together with sound technician Magnus Nergaard with recordings that later would turn into the duo’s debut album.

The music is the result of a couple of years working with different ideas of improvisation and composition. Both musicians have their opinions on how much or little control you bring into the music, or in what way you choose to react to the other, and in what tempo reactions and interactions should occur. All these elements affect how a piece is experienced, and how it progresses. Uncontrolled elements and surprising changes can both interrupt and co-exist with already established motives. Working with both controlled and uncontrolled impulses at the same time gives the music a depth and feeling of intense focus. The album title Mille Feuille, named after the French cake, translates to “a thousand layers”, which became a common thread in the artistic process.

Karl Bjorå and Signe Emmeluth are musicians and composers residing in Oslo. They work in the field of improvised and contemporary music, but take part in a wide range of projects within this framework, in groups such as Megalodon Collective, Yes Deer, Mudskipper and Emmeluth’s Amoeba. They both studied jazz and improvised music at the Music Conservatory in Trondheim, and were an important part of the young and vital music scene while living there.

Since 2012 they’ve toured extensively throughout Europe, Japan and USA, and have collaborated with established musicians such as Mats Gustafsson, Paal Nilssen-Love, Balazs Pandi, Alan Wilkinson and many more.