Dakota Suite & Emanuele Errante
The North Green Down
Karaoke Kalk

The North Green Down was originally released on the Lidar label in 2011 as a limited CD (long since sold out). Karaoke Kalk has decided to re-launch this album, which they call some 'heartfelt and poignant' music (on vinyl), adding an additional, previously unreleased track called "Instincts Reduced To Silence".

Last time we checked out Dakota Suite (a.k.a. Chris Hooson, with additional players) was with Dakota Suite & Quentin Sirjacq's There Is Calm To Be Done in 2014. Emanuele Errante collaborated on Dakota Suite's remix project (The Night Just Keeps Coming In), and Hooson asked Errante to join in on The North Green Down (composed for the death of Hooson's sister-in-law, Hannah). This makes The North... a theme album about sorrow and loss. Karaoke Kalk has formerly released Dakota Suite's The End of Trying (2008) and The Hearts of Empty (2011), as well as Errante's solo album Time Elapsing Handheld (2011). In addition, Dakota Suite has released some 10 albums on various labels, while Errante's CV counts Migrations (on Apegenine, 2006), and Humus (Somnia, 2008).

The North Green Down is a massive piece of music as it hols almost 80 minutes of 'fragile pianos, guitars, cello and subtle electronic elements'. The musical contents are low-voiced, jazzy and modern, neo-classical minimalism. Most of the songs, well all of them, really are songs to contemplate to. Over and over again. This is the soundtrack for finding inner peace. That said, the songs are not totally stripped of drama, even though you'd probably guess that songs with titles like "A Hymn To Haruki Murakami", "Instincts Reduced To Silence" and "They Could Feel The End Of All Things" will sound and appear rather calm and balanced.

This is not an album to list favourite tracks from, as it's more the album 'in total' that counts - with all the songs together. That said, check out "Leegte", "A Worn Out Life (With Cello)", "Away From This Silence", and "The North Green Down (Part V)" to get some various impressions of this album. The seven parts of the title track plus all the other compositions are superbly performed, arranged and orchestrated. Chris Hooson (piano, guitar) and Emanuele Errante (keyboards, electronics, laptop-tools, etc.) are of course the main players, but you'll find excellent contributions from the acclaimed and renowned American cellist David Darling, as well as some vital additions from Dakota Suite associate/bandmate David Buxton (on various recordings and instrumentation). It's hard to describe The North Green Down. One can simply quote Karaoke Kalk, that this album is 'cinematic, hypnotic and simply beautiful!'.

Copyright © 2016 Håvard Oppøyen