URO - Or (2017) [Hi-Res]

Bio:
In the beautiful south of Norway, three very different guitar players joined forces to create the band URO. The artistic intention was already well-defined from the very start in 2014. How to compose music honestly and in coherence with the Norwegian heritage, when the style of playing guitar is so much influenced by the American sound? A split duality between American form and Norwegian heart took place.
Anders Brønstad, Kristofer Spangen and Marius Igland soon asked drummer Kristoffer Tokle to join the group. In 2015, the band currently working with Steinar Glas on the bass guitar, wrote the music for a theatre piece by Ulrikke Benestad, called: “Villa Contigo – Halvveis til himmelen”. Eventually the current line-up completed with bass player Torbjørn Tveit joining the group in 2016 to record their sought-after debut album: Or.

Anders Brønstad
The virtuous guitarist from Trondheim is a craftsman of the highest order, and can compete with anybody when it comes to technique and harmonic complexity. Although a solid craftsman, his heart is tender to elegant simplicity and balance. Brønstad has contributed as guitarist for artists such as Tommy Marman, Grannes and BCG. After finishing the master degree in popular music at the University of Agder in 2016, he moved back to Trondheim, and is currently performing in various constellations around the Norwegian event scene.

Kristofer Spangen
As long as it´s got a string or two, Kristofer Spangen knows how to make it play. The multi-instrumentalist was born in Trondheim in 1990, but soon changed venue to Kristiansand, were he studied the guitar to a master degree at the University of Agder and finished in 2016. Spangen has collaborated with popular music artists such as Astrid Ekern, Askil Holm, Elisabeth Mjanger, Inger-Lise Sturlien and is currently the guitar player in the pop group VIAN, who are releasing their album “Diafon” in 2017.
In URO he is working as the melody-man, playing the dobro in new ways as this beautiful instrument is working its way through the twisted melodies and harmonies that make up the sound of URO.

Kristoffer Tokle
The drummer of URO had a nutritious musical raising in the hometown of the Molde Jazzfestival. Already at the age of 18 he was recording with the well known Norwegian New Orleans music group Ytre- Suløen Jass-ensemble. In 2013, he was accepted as a regular member and received in 2014 the award for “This Years Jazztalent” at the Molde Jazzfestival. His broad musical background is rooted in the simplicity of acoustic drums, in perfect tune, making the band swing like there is no tomorrow. His academic work reveals a passion for drums as something more than time and beats, as his masters thesis is called: “Melodic drumming” – an analysis of Ari Hoenigs playing techniques and tunings”.

Torbjørn Tveit
A groove is a living organism, brought alive by the relation between the sound and the conscious mind of a human being. Torbjørn Tveit stays true to this statement through his various performances from world-music with Ingolv Haaland on the record “Asian Flow”, through the jazzy hiphop band Behop on the record “Neo”, and on the singer songwriter landscape of Mads With.

Tveit was born in the peaceful seaside of Kragerø, but cultivated his craft at the University of Agder and finished his masters degree in 2016. In URO, his deep singing bass strings makes the harmonies of the guitars and dobro make sense. His gentle touch of the Fender P-bass delivers that secret ingredient of the URO sound, that´ll make you move in seaside rhythm with the music.

Marius Igland
Born and raised in the quiet town of Grimstad, literally at the seaside, Igland was soon attracted to the architectural structure of music through harmony and rhythmic patterns. His sound is distinct by the full-bodied attack and unhurried vibrato in his guitar. After finishing a bachelors degree of Musicology at the University of Oslo, he relocated to Kristiansand were he refined his guitar playing with the masters degree in musical performance at the University of Agder. The same year, Igland was awarded a diploma from the University as one of eight “Remarkable students”.
His previous release futures the jazz sextet of Mirage Ensemble, with the album “Memory Happens Now” (Losen Records LOS 128-2, 2014), where Igland function as bandleader, main-composer and guitar player.

01. URO - Vent (6:10)
02. URO - Fri (4:18)
03. URO - September (5:23)
04. URO - Mening (3:58)
05. URO - Tog (4:08)
06. URO - April (5:32)
07. URO - Avgjørelsen (4:16)
08. URO - Ettertanke (5:29)
09. URO - Stige (4:34)
10. URO - Gudbaj (3:34)