Rural Tapes’ new album - “Oneiric”
The new album ‘Oneiric’ from Rural Tapes is another expansive and enthralling record from the highly acclaimed Rural Tapes moniker of Norwegian producer and multi-instrumentalist Arne Kjelsrud Mathisen.
As the title suggests ‘Oneiric’ is a record for the dreamers, a trippy cosmic aural experience of largely instrumental music, recorded analogue and crafted together at his Nygrenda Vev & Dur studio in rural Norway.
“Rural Tapes delights in the unexpected. At every turn, you encounter something new, something to be marvelled over. Kjelsrud Mathisen has said he wants this music to stand the test of time. It will.”
The first taste of ‘Oneiric’ came with lead single ‘Bird’s-Eye View’, a soaring song which dances on a smooth bassline as mellotron shimmers alongside warped synths simulating birdsong.
The sounds quickly dig deeper into the curious dreamscape of ‘Oneiric’, such as found on ‘Retire The Fool’ with Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor on vocals, a minimalist echoing track which plays both welcomingly familiar yet cautiously eerie with a drone of weightless experimentation.
Meanwhile ‘Hypermnesia’ expands further with bold brass exuding optimism in a story built around the words from a lost tape where an old man talks about his first memory as a four-year-old, where he suddenly became aware of that he was a human being and that he was living in a wonderful world.
An expansive and mesmeric experience across its 12 tracks, ‘Oneiric’ is wrapped up fittingly with ‘Lucid Dreaming’ a vivid piece drenched in orchestral wonderment, warped synths and a dramatic drum crescendo closing the bold creative experimentation in Oneiric with an awaking of rich clarity.
“A dreamy self-titled debut full of broad soundscapes... Melding smooth jazz with floaty puffs of synth, the album is both meditative and uplifting, the sort of soundtrack you might expect from a dream sequence in a 1970s film.”
On ‘Oneiric’ Arne Kjelsrud Mathisen play organs, synthesizers, piano, mellotron, drums, drum machines, percussion, field recordings, trombone, tuba, electric guitars, vocals, vocoder and tape treatment. He is joined in parts by collaborators including Alexis Taylor, Gary Olson, Kristine Tjøgersen, Lars Løberg Tofte, Marin Stallemo Bakke, Sigurd Thomassen, Silje Høgevold, Terry Edwards and Øystein Braut.
In a career which spans two decades, Arne Kjelsrud Mathisen has cemented himself as a vital name from the Norwegian music scene. He has been a part of important Norwegian bands such as I Was A King and Heroes & Zeros, while more recently has been releasing records in the bi-continental jangle band The No Ones with Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey from R.E.M. and Minus 5 along with I Was A King frontman Frode Strømstad.
Launching his Rural Tapes project with the self-titled record in 2021, he solidified his status further for his inventive and progressive music. Rural Tapes is consistently met by a wealth of high praise as seen across the further studio albums including ‘Inner Space Music’ (2022) and ‘Contact’ (2024). He now heightens senses further with ‘Oneiric’, an album set to prove a vital record in his catalogue.