Experimental Artist Kim Myhr Releases Psychedelic ‘R&B’ Track
NORWEGIAN EXPERIMENTAL ARTIST KIM MYHR RELEASES
THE PSYCHEDELIC ‘R&B’ TRACK
“GIFTING SENSELESSLY IN ENDLESS LAVISHNESS”
SYMPATHETIC MAGIC OUT AUGUST 19 VIA HUBRO
WRITTEN DURING THE 2021 LOCKDOWN, THE ALBUM CIRCLES AROUND THE SOLITARY LONGING FOR COLLECTIVE BLISS AND TOGETHERNESS
“Kim Myhr is a master of slow-morphing rhythms and sun-dappled
textures that seem to glow from the inside”
– The Guardian
(Photo credit: Orfee Schuijt)
Myhr announced the textured work of maximalistic minimalism with the immersive “Up To The Sun Shall Go Your Heartache” and today, the experimental musician shares “Gifting Senselessly In Endless Lavishness,” which he calls “the R&B song of the record.” The track title is taken from a book by Bojana Kunst and the music is both generous and aware.
“The first thing I wrote on the piece was the organ intro,” says Kim. “I wanted to make something ecstatic and soulful. The rest of the song flowed naturally into different sections. Working with an R&B drum beat like that was a first for me. It was nice to work with an element so grounded, it’s quite a contrast to the swaths of orchestral 12-string guitar harmonics that takes you far out to the sea.”
Thematically, Sympathetic Magic circles around the solitary longing for collective bliss and togetherness. For thirteen months, Myhr worked incessantly on this large-scale 74-minute suite of music. While the world was locked down, thanks to a commission from Oslo Jazz Festival, he had the opportunity to go far into the project, working tightly with the members of the band, one at a time.
“This music created a situation of unexpected positivity,” adds Kim. “It felt like a social project even if I spent most of the time on it alone. All this positive and joyful energy was a quite magical feeling, just arriving out of thin air in this pretty grim situation. The whole thing almost felt like a hallucination; like an imaginary project.”
The title of the record is a term coined by James Frazer in The Golden Bough. He writes, “things which have once been in contact with each other continue to act on each other at a distance after the physical contact has been severed.” Kim says, “I felt it appropriately summed up a lot of the processes, thoughts, and sentiments that went into the making of this record”.
Sympathetic Magic is a follow-up to the acclaimed 2017 album You | me, which received an honorary mention at the 2018 Nordic Music Prize. The warm generosity of You | me is still present, but Sympathetic Magic is more expansive than its predecessor. A broad cast of musicians and instruments (drum machines, vocals, synthesizers, and organs) have created a work of a grander scale.
“Listening to You | me is a little bit like swimming in a sea of elements that have equal importance in the music,” adds Myhr. “As a listener, you could float around in it, and I wanted to challenge this a bit, to push certain elements a bit forward. The result was a more melodic and song-like kind of music than what I’ve done before.”
Sympathetic Magic Track List:
1) And I Thought These Are My People
2) Gifting Senselessly In Endless Lavishness
3) Move The Rolling Sky
4) Iridescent
5) Up To The Sun Shall Go Your Heartache
6) I Wonder If I Shall Fall Right Through The Earth
7) Heart Streams