Norway-based producer/musician Karl Endreson’s downtempo electronic project has been active since 2006, purveying nature-inspired soundscapes mixing ambient textures and trip-hop beats with guitar and field recordings, steeped in atmosphere infused with a deep sense of melody and nostalgia.
Orange Crush’s distinction is in quality control
Eidolon (/aɪˈdoʊlɒn/ Ancient Greek: εἴδωλον) – image, double, apparition, phantom, ghost; from here no great leap etymologically to the English ‘idol,’ though in ancient Greece it usually referred to a spirit-image of a person, living or dead, a shade or phantom lookalike of the human form.
Album title may be significant—a knowing reference to (looka)likeness? The author may have had other ideas, sure, but be that as it may; it serves nicely as a way-in to consideration of Eidolons, 25 tracks spanning Orange Crush’s catalog, compiled, and remastered exclusively for the album, by US label Sun Sea Sky (previous S S S coverage here), with notable raids made on Halcyon Days (2020), Coastal Drive (2018), Autumn Reflections (2009) and The Fields (2006). For more about that title, read on…
On the surface, Norway and Scotland have a certain affinity, which may be a factor in the eidetic relation of the music of Orange Crush to that of Boards of Canada. Norway-based producer/musician Karl Endreson’s downtempo electronic project has been active since 2006, purveying nature-inspired soundscapes mixing ambient textures and trip-hop beats with guitar and field recordings, steeped in atmosphere infused with a deep sense of melody and nostalgia. Influences are clear, and avowed, in particular BoC, other British acts from Bibio to MBV, and Danish spirit kin Syntaks and Manual (with whom OC shared a split ep (Untitled, 2008)).
Likeness to BoC in others—any number of acts in three decades of IDM, from, say, Marumari and Ten and Tracer to Tycho and Clocolan—tends to be invoked in reviews with implied criticism, but the purpose here is not to bury, but to praise. Originality is but one of a number of criteria involved in evaluating a musical work, and arguably not as vital as others related to sonic and compositional sensibility. Music so closely inspired by as to be virtually derived from may recall the One on Twoism compilation series curated by the Twoism forum, a community dedicated to BoC and related, focused on various independent artists across its tracklists. However, though something of the spirit is shared, Orange Crush‘s distinction is in quality control, viz. Endreson’s ear for sound quality (see keys, guitars) and rhythm (beat tweakery), architecture and design, for all its fanboy-fueled DIY spirit, sets him apart from the cut-paste will-this-do approach of the average copyist.
Notably, some Eidolons could easily have slid into the tracklist of BoC‘s Inferno (e.g. “Invocation,” “Memory Station”) and much harmless fun may be had allocating others elsewhere, e.g. “Lush Spring Feeling” to Ulrich Schnauss, “Tangerine Rush” to Casino versus Japan. Otherwise, let it be said, Orange Crush ‘evokes stillness, reflection, and connection to the natural world,’ its curators say, billing it ‘electronic music for the heart and soul’ (SUNSEASKY website), but such is the outcome of reductionism and poetics. Dancing about architecture, as some wit put it…
Eidolons is available on Sun Sea Sky. [Bandcamp]
