My review of all-things-string meister Stein Urheim's self-titled third album, today at All About Jazz.

Things are looking up for Bergen-based Stein Urheim, a musician who, on the basis of Stein Urheim—his second release on Hubro after the vinyl/download-only Kosmolodi (2012) and third as a leader following his 2009 debut, Three Sets of Music—seems interested in just about anything with strings...and a few without. Beyond his own career, which includes work with Gabriel Fliflet´s Åresong and a guest appearance on The Last Hurrah!'s 2011 Rune Grammofon debut, Spiritual Non-Believers, his Stein and Mari collaboration with Mari Kvien Brunvoll—an electro-acoustic singer who, since enthralling a group of international guests at a church showcase, continues to garner significant attention—has been gaining ground of its own, the duo's sophomore record, Daydream Twin (Jazzland, 2013), narrowly missing out on a Spellemannprisen (Norwegian Grammy) ultimately awarded to singer Susanna Wallumrod's admittedly stellar collaboration with Ensemble neoN, The Forester (Susanna Sonata, 2013).

Stein Urheim picks up where Kosmolodi left off, with Urheim expanding his arsenal even further, adding charango, banjo and analog synths to an already large array that includes, in addition to various guitars, the Chinese gu qin, Norwegian langeleik, Greek bouzouki and Asian tamboura, in addition to flutes, harmonica and, of course for just about any young Norwegian musician, a bevy of effects. The opening to "Kosmoloda"—one of five originals recorded in the deepest, darkest Norwegian winter at the climactically cold but acoustically warm wooden home of legendary violinist Ole Bull—sounds very much like a modern update on Robert Fripp's innovative Frippertronics, first heard on No Pussyfooting (DGM Live, 1973).

Continue reading here...