Stein Torleif Bjella - Øvre-Ål Toneakademi (2020)

Hallingen Stein Torleif Bjella was over 40 when he debuted in 2009 as a solo artist with the album "Heidersmenn".

His honest and self-proclaimed lyrics immediately received a lot of attention, and the Kjartan Kristiansen-produced album was Spellemanns nominated for both this year's visual album and this year's copywriter. In retrospect, Bjella has won the Prize Prize, the Bendiksen Prize and the Edward Prize, and his lyrics have become theater.

In other words, Stein Torleif Bjella has ten years of heavy text, and it is natural to hope for a certain literary move on the latest publication "Øvre-Ål Toneakademi".

Also, "Øvre-Ål Tonea Academy" is, like Bjella's first three solo records, produced by DumDum Boys guitarist Kjartan Kristiansen. In the opening track "Sundre City" we get acquainted with several different characters at the core of Ål in Hallingdal: Sundre. A very successful vocal mix combined with a steady Django Reinhardt beat creates a, possibly involuntary, very alluring image of the seemingly sleepy village. A fiercely catchy song about what for many an Osloer may seem like a forgotten country: the village.

On the next song, "Nasty Fish", the DumDum Boys influence really comes into view. Stein Torleif Bjella has never sounded more like Prepple Houmb than on this blues-inspired lament for growing apathy. Despite the slightly chubby "yeah, yeah, yeah" chore, this one also lands on its feet.

"My Name is Stein" is a beautifully told tribute to mountains, the vastness and nature as medicine, but still one of the album's musically weakest tracks. Unfortunately, an unusually boring and uninteresting arrangement does not help to prepare the listener for late nights in the mountain world.

However, this is the exception on a record that presents a mostly exciting and unpredictable musical universe. We get the classic with whispers, double bass and steel guitar, but also a number of atmospheric input from Geir Sundstøl on shankargit, cümbüs and dobro.