The sleeve notes of this CD read like a Hot Topic for Scandophiles, containing as they do thank-yous to practically every Norwegian musician you ever head of. So it’s kind of funny and kind of amazing that this rocking-back-and-forth-in-frustration hour of digital storm and snow-blind feedback sounds so intensely isolated, isolating and unfriendly. Yet if it really was isolated, angry music it would make my eyes hurt, and actually it doesn’t. After the initial scree of noise, and the next phase, a kind of boredom, as you attempt to shut out the noise, you reach a period of acceptance, of living with mayhem. You feel its safety and organisation and smartness.

I saw Lasse Marhaug in Oslo a few months ago, with Jazzkammer, and felt the same mixture of excitement and stasis, noise so loud you can almost ignore it. Sometimes I did ignore it, because my friend didn’t like it and said there were no surprises and I tried to think like him for a minute, and had to agree. I’m good at that. But other times, I just felt glad that the noise was there. I’d have shaken my head til I got sick and/or tripped over my feet if I hadn’t been surrounded by stoic Scandinavian men (they stand and LISTEN to this stuff, proper listening).

Lasse says on his website: “Reviews in the norwegian press have been surprisingly positive, even got a 6/6 in one paper - so I must be doing something wrong.”