OYSTEIN SEVAG
You can hear the smooth sounds of waves coming from far away. You feel as though you are standing by the shore of an ocean, where grey mist is hanging over the seaboard rocks like porridge and the sodden breeze pierces your bones. Then a pulsating rhythm arises, and the melody of the composition " Horizon" calls out to you. You board a small boat and sail out towards the unknown, to the vast ocean, veiled by the misty clouds. The journey begins. Dramatic and absorbing, mysterious and unpredictable, changeable and in total communication with you - that is music of Oystein Sevag. His album " Close Your Eyes And See" was released in the distant year of 1989, but this music could be defined as innovative even now. Sevag isn't afraid of experimenting. He creates arabesque chasms of sound in " Grounding" , which is unexpectedly followed by the uncommonly harmonic composition " Norwegian Mood" , full of tenderness and romance. The sax of Bendik Hofseth blends with Sevag's keyboards. When the soft harmonies of " Norwegian Mood" have faded away, you are brought to an absolutely new place, frightening in its uncertainty and its atmosphere of total solitude, with the resonant sounds of " Silent Prayer" . This four-minute-long meditation is followed by the enigmatic " Short Revelation" . The unfamiliar worlds start opening up to you. It is like a conversation. The strange, unearthly beings are talking to you. They have come here from the terrible darkness of the cosmos to bring you an important message. You cannot understand their bizarre language, but intuitively you can sense what they mean. The cockleshell changes into a spaceship, and now you can see the Earth from outer space. Here it is, in front of you, and far away there are the shining lights of the unthinkably distant stars. Clinking silence, holding the " Message from Silence" within it. And suddenly, as if your entire past life opens up in front of you, you quickly fly through it. You can see yourself as a child you can see your parents you are gazing at what was dear to you you are reminded of everybody you have loved. Filled with the precise rhythms, softened by the guitar of Roar Lindberg, the composition " Gaia" invites you to revisit the pleasurable moments of your own past. The rhythm continues to pulsate in the next melody, " Gratitude" . You feel love and appreciation towards the Higher Powers for everything that has happened to you, and there is also emotional heat and drama. The whirlpool of life sweeps through you, and you are waiting for some advice - what can help you to free yourself from this upheaval? And then you are given advice, with " The One Word of the Wiseman" , helping you to return to the present. Now you are on your way home, and the journey is drawing to its end. You are returning, full of new and unexpected experiences. The keyboards of Oystein Sevag, the bass of Jan Erik Salater and the percussion of Inge Norum interweave in the composition " Home" , creating an astonishing bouquet, a blending of fantastic melodic branches, spontaneous and optimistic. When the last chords of Sevag's music die out, you realize that the journey is finished, and you want to repeat it again and again. Such music never can become outdated, because it is so genuine. It is a musical prayer, a musical meditation. There is inspiration in it, and there are also many innovative ideas and good solutions in its sound design. This music embodies spiritual experience of mankind, which will " inspire you on your path to your inner source" .
Serge Kozlovsky P.S. Oystein Sevag's website address is: http://www.sevag.com. |
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© Serge Kozlovsky |