Open String Department - We Can Be Anyone (2025) [Hi-Res]

Tracklist

01. Hold Out Your Hand
02. The Way It Went
03. Wouldn't You Say
04. No TV
05. Different Horse
06. Dangerous Instrumental Stuff
07. Dangerous Stuff
08. When I Was Young
09. Baby Britain
10. If It Was Up To Me

We Can Be Anything is Open String Department's fourth album. The trio has grown to a four piece band, adding Siril Malmedal Hauge's otherworldly vocals and flute playing to the mix. Having been aware of each others musical escapades for a while, a chance encounter at a Chris Thile show in Oslo 2022 would instigate this brand new edition of the long going project.

Open String Department has since its conception in 2012 looked to push bluegrass and americana into a nordic improviser's field. The band has been turning heads on both the jazz and bluegrass scene since their first shows, and seen them tour all over Europe as well as Japan. They have collaborated successfully with some of Norway's absolute finest musicians, but as they worked up material for their first show with Siril it was apparent to everyone that this had a wholly unique potential.

We Can Be Anything creates it's own decidedly unique branch to occupy on the americana-tree. The soundscape is familiar with it's hints to luminaries Alison Krauss, Bill Frisell and Punch Brothers, yet stretches out in directions that seem mostly unexplored. Expertly engineered by Leif Johansen (a-ha, Marius Müller) who has co-produced the album with the band, the album is in large part recorded live in studio with overdubs.

The band can be described as a full democracy led by banjoist and multi-instrumentalist Magnus Wiik, who penned eight of the ten tracks on the album. Originally his brainchild, it could not have been realized with any other musicians than these: Espen Bjarnar, whose virtuosity and inventive approach to the guitar and polyrhythms is one of the strongest trademarks of the band. On bass, but also as a wellspring of production and musical ideas, Aksel Jensen provides the perfect blend of being the low anchor as well as a musical conversationalist. And Siril Malmedal Hauge who not only sings this music as if she hasn't done anything else in her life, but also adds mandolin and flute and brought in the banger tune No TV. The flute is rarely heard in this genre for maybe good reason, but in this case it really adds the icing on the cake.

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