Borko : Celebrating Life

<img src="http://www.qromag.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/03/borkocelebratinglife.jpg" alt=" " />Indietronica meets instrumental expanse and more, as Björn Kristiansson is <em>Celebrating Life</em>....
7.5 Morr
2008 

 Indietronica meets instrumental expanse and more, as Björn Kristiansson is Celebrating Life. The Icelandic musician has been compiling his stuff for years now, and Thomas Morr of Morr Music has finally been able to get him to put it all together, as ‘Borko’.  While the vocals, when present, could use some work, Kristiansson has created an atmosphere as bracing as any in the Arctic Circle.

Celebrating Life opens with the instrumental “Continental Love”, which nicely introduces the listener to Kristiansson’s mix of lappop and indie-orchestra (kind of ‘The Postal Service meets Broken Social Scene’, if you like those sorts of comparisons).  The following “Spoonstabber”, Kristiansson’s “song about being punched in the belly”, is slower, with a ‘nature’ effect, but it does display his one weakness: vocals.  They come off as too affected, though improve as the song grows in its second half.

Kristiansson experiments throughout Life, and the results are pretty uniformly sound.  There’s the high psychedelica of the enveloping “Shoo Ba Ba”, the pressing, proceeding growth of “Sushi Stakeout”, and the haunting atmosphere of “Dingdong Kingdom” (though that piece is also weighed down a bit by Kristiansson’s uninspired singing).  However, it’s really in the final third where Life takes it up a notch.  “Summer Logic” is an instrumental bridge that could be a better version of “Continental Love”, while “Doo Doo Doo” is indietronica with orchestral hints.  Closer “Hondo & Borko” ends Life on its highest note, thanks to its slow, bright growth into a powerful crescendo in the piece’s second half.

Björn Kristiansson does falter when he gets to the spoken word – not just in vocals, but Celebrating Life also has some really awful song titles – but luckily, he used it sparingly.  Instead, he has crafted a powerful yet enjoyable piece of work that shall carry all across the North Atlantic.

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