Sâver Premiere “Shot Put” Video From Split EP with Frøkedal
On Dec. 2, Pelagic Records will release the new split EP between Norwegian outfits Sâver and Frøkedal. History — namely Sâver‘s 2021 split LP with Belgium’s Psychonaut (review here) — teaches us that when the Oslo-based post-sludge trio team up with somebody, it’s not an accident, and the emphasis on breadth as regards this two-song offering is not misplaced. Each party has chosen a track of the other’s and pushed themselves outside the limits of expectation in order to present it across a 10″ vinyl.
Frøkedal, née Anne Lise Frøkedal issued the song “Shot-Put” on 2021’s Flora full-length, working with full-band backing under the banner of Frøkedal & Family. In her original version, neofolk and organic drones set a richly atmospheric backdrop for her confident and organic vocal layering. Sâver approach it as an opportunity to expand their sonic palette by redirecting their own style toward loyalty to the original track. They turn strings to synth, and the feeling is somewhat more minimalist, with floating melodic drone behind the clean-sung verses and a sense of broadening Frøkedal‘s piece that extends beyond just the increase in runtime. The song becomes a wash mindfully, but even in its last residual synth reaches retains its sense of purpose and patience.
Brought into Frøkedal‘s hands, Sâver‘s “I, Vanish” becomes a harmonic meditation reminiscent instrumentally somewhat of a quiet stretch on Neurosis‘ A Sun That Never Sets, but the vocals and string sounds direct its transportive sensibilities elsewhere. Not entirely earthy but definitely born on this planet, “I, Vanish” — which originally appeared on Sâver‘s 2019 debut LP, They Came With Sunlight (review here) — reaches a stirring vocal crescendo before hitting the four-minute mark and retains some of its original lurch thereafter, but is duly transformed from something crushing into a vibrancy no less immersive. In the context of this release, each artist branching beyond themselves, Frøkedal‘s interpretation of “I, Vanish” is no less bold than that of Sâver taking on “Shot-Put.”
Sâver‘s “Shot-Put” is premiering in the video below, followed by copious PR wire background — without narrative, we are but beasts; also with it — and I’ve also included the streams at the bottom of this post of Flora and They Came With Sunlight, neither of which you will regret digging into if you haven’t before, and each of which offers its own kind of encompassing welcome to the listener, even if in one case that means hitting you in the head with a hammer. Still counts.
Please enjoy:
Sâver, “Shot-Put” official video
“Shot Put” is taken from Frøkedal / Sâver’s upcoming Split EP. Out Dec 2 via Pelagic Records.
Video credits: Glenn Marshal
Norway is home to many genre-bending artists and its music scene has been an explorative playground for fans of transcendental music. We are happy to present a unique collaboration between two remarkable Norwegian acts who each represent two far ends of an intriguing spectrum.
Frøkedal is a popular folk singer-songwriter whose haunting vocals have scored the music of various acclaimed bands over the past decade. The members of Sâver are veterans of the Norwegian heavy scene. Having toured all over the world playing renowned festivals like Roadburn and Psycho Las Vegas, they now fill and orchestrate the gap between eerie softness and furious anger as a three-piece atmospheric sludge metal ensemble.
This split 10” sees each of these artists present a song from the respective other artist’s back catalogue, finding a transcendental middle ground between the other artist’s musical realm and their own sphere.
Commenting on the beginning of her own musical career, Frøkedal notes: “Because everyone has a computer these days there’s no limit to how many times you can multi-track. I [was] sick of that. I hoped to go the other way – to remove as much as I could and be left with a beating heart.”
Remarkably, Sâver have done just that in their execution of Frøkedal’s track «Shot-Put», turning down their guitars to give space to clean vocals and laying bare the synths that are an integral part of their sound. Driven by deep drones and soft layered vocals, the Homeric simile of a meeting at the shot put becomes even more compelling, turning the folksy original into a haunting ambient rock opus. In turn, Frøkedal lays bare the heart of «I Vanish» from Sâver’s debut LP in a gently swaying but bewitching folk version.
In a world somewhere between the triple harmony magic of The Staves and the polyphonic madness of Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares, Anne Lise conjures the unsettling path towards obliteration.
Many things can be said about the way these songs sound and even about how they transcend the originals in some ways, but the true beauty of this EP lies in the way both Frøkedal and Sâver incline towards each other to find a middle ground that is yet unexplored in their respective careers. Coming together, they prove that beauty is found in the eye of the beholder, but transcendence is found in the eye of the storm!
