First things first grabbing this by the scruff of the neck the baffling word skrifum in the title is from the Icelandic language and means “write”. The writing pianist at work here is Norwegian.
It’s a solo plus electronics album, the electronics provided by an audio tool called a Spektrafon.
Playing his own compositions Jon Balke developed this live processing software in collaboration with technology professor Anders Tveit from the Norwegian Academy of Music.
You can’t really call what’s here electronica because there isn’t an overt groove or even one at all – an element that most electronica possesses.
So instead the electronics provide extra mist and ambient qualities that erase the essential starkness of some piano only albums and flesh out the otherwise skeletal, often very slow, piano lines.
That’s a big positive. A track like ‘Stripes’ for instance is very atmospheric, noir-ish and certainly dramatic as these electronic mists descend while Balke tinkles away moodily.
It’s quite avant sounding – if you like Craig Taborn then say what Balke does on the title track fits into an area that the American improviser sometimes explores.
Some tracks like ‘Ductus’ have more of an étude quality and you do get the sense of the baroque on this track.
Skrifum was recorded in November 2023 at a studio in Copenhagen and later edited and mastered in Munich.
The cover artwork is rather beautiful and as usual with ECM the sonic qualities are first class.
Certainly a departure for Balke even though he has released solo piano works before such as Warp (2016) and Discourses (2020).
Each track has a taut focus and certainly there is a huge clarity in the pianist’s compositional compass.
Cerebral yes, ditto serious. Dull – no.
