We like We - Next To The Entire All (2017)

A striking proposition for fans of Maja S.K. Ratkje, Meredith Monk, Hildur Guðnadóttir, this new release on Sonic Pieces features a stunning clutch of stately, oneiric neo-classical, avant-garde and electronic gestures by Denmark’s experimental quartet, We like We - revolving Katrine Grarup Elbo (violin), Josefine Opsahl (cello), Sara Nigard Rosendal (percussion) and Katinka Fogh Vindelev (voice).

Like their debut A New Age of Sensibility [2014] for The Being Music, which was also mixed by Jacob Kirkgaard, the all female quartet dash genre distinctions with a totally beguiling sleight-of-hand, with each member putting their classical training at the service of freedom of expression and playfulness, rather than stifling themselves into convention.

The result is a haunting, at times surreal, and often unpredictable clash of traditions and energies perhaps best described in terms of its vivid colours, volume changes and proprioceptive and temporal chicanery. The four proceed to converge, swarm and disperse across ten pieces with preternaturally organic dynamic.

While opener I’m Not For More gives the LP a hushed, folkwise beginning, then seamlessly melded with electronics, they continue to defy expectations at each turn. Whether shimmering like some Far Eastern ambient fantasia meets Maxwell Sterling’s Hollywood Medieval styles in Endless Harmonics, or turning inwards to focus on Spunk-like extended vocals and instrumental techniques in Distance, which acts as prelude to the almost ‘marish flares of Forest Sketches, or then probing the limits of spatial and tonal perception, Ligeti-style with the air-curdling, hair-curling tension of Time Is Local - Seventeen Days, you can call us captivated, to say the very least.

Yet another beauty from Sonic Pieces. If you were into their sublime Jasmine Guffond side or the recent slices by Christopher Berg and Otto A. Totland, your time will not go amiss here as well!

Tracklist:
01. We like We - I'm Not For More
02. We like We - Endless Harmonies
03. We like We - Distance
04. We like We - Forest Sketches
05. We like We - Frost
06. We like We - Our Flags Are Torn
07. We like We - Dark Waters
08. We like We - Ghost
09. We like We - Time Is Local - Seventeen Days
10. We like We - Dust Patterns