N Kramer and Magnus Bang Olsen’s Pastoral Blend would feel like a seamless flow – panta rhei – if the two musicians didn’t insert abrupt caesuras into their compositions. These ruptures prompt listeners to constantly question the seemingly naïve musical surface. Across the full album length, delicate drones – reminiscent of Oren Ambarchi’s Grapes from the Estate – intertwine with Americana-inflected guitar licks, gently encouraging a sense of comfort. But just as you start to settle in, those aforementioned stumbles pull you out of the comfort zone – only slightly, never violently.
The title of the LP already offers a clue: it’s not meant to hurt. Rather, it seeks to heal in a liturgical sense, to soothe and console. With that intention, the duo has found a fitting home on Music From Memory. By the time the third track rolls in, getting up is no longer an option. Elements meander into nothingness, avoiding dialogue – simply because they don’t need to communicate. There’s no structure or anchor, just leisurely movement and hints of what could become country songs if one were to reassemble it all from scratch.
A slight exception is »Orb«, whose repeating chords establish a kind of pulse. Elsewhere, though, the album’s deconstruction of Americana ascends into something ethereal, teasing with a sense of elegiac transcendence.
