I like to think we’ve featured some lovely stuff this week, but I can’t deny too that some of our offerings have registered pretty highly on the ‘Mirel Wagner Scale of Bleakness’ - the tool we use at Nordic Music Review to gauge the level of misery and despair in songwriting. In his new song ‘Health’. Norwegian lo-fi musician Richard Noir appears to head in the direction of wanting to wallow in Nordic melancholy, but then hauls himself out just in time and presents a charming song that nuzzles softly at your neck - or maybe at your ankles if you prefer.
We haven’t featured Richard Noir previously, born in Råde, which he describes as ‘a boring place in Norway where nothing really happens’. Now that seemed a little harsh, so I did decided I was going to disprove this by researching all the amazing things about the place, thus singlehandedly boosting the local tourist economy. But turns out he’s right. Anyway the church looks lovely, and maybe we could all do with some time appreciating a place like this where nothing much happens.
Interestingly Richard has links with another of our featured bands from this week (see our by:Larm review), producing ‘Das Body’, and as a member of the bands Level & Tyson and Superfamily – he’s also written for film and TV.
‘Health’ is an apparently curious song at 1st listen, one paced with deliberately drab harmonies in the opening, but it just lifts itself up in the Chorus in such a way that you get the feeling that everything will be alright – maybe it’s the musical equivalent of turning your car into your street on a Friday night after 5 days of commuting. There’s a gentle amiability about it, a softness in the melody and in the laid back and low key guitar contributions – he’s not writing this to impress anyone, just because it feels right.
This is ‘Health’:
Richard Noir releases an album, entitled '1640 Råde' (1640 is the zipcode) this Spring sometime, which is great news as it gives us more time to research all things Råde in time for the album revew.