Fredrik Rasten: Svevning

Fredrik Rasten is a guitarist, vocalist and composer who was born in Norway in 1988, these days being based in Oslo and Berlin. He works in the field of experimental improvised and composed music. In recent years he has been working with just intonation. He has been inspired by Wandelweiser music, traditional British folk, and early music. His first album release, Giraffe, was issued in 2018, on Edition Wandelweiser, and featured Rasten on guitar, playing compositions by Johan Lindvall rather than by himself. Lindvall returned the favour when he recorded eight of Rasten's compositions for the album Four Parallel Rivers (Edition Wandelweiser, 2021). In addition to being a member of the groups Arches, Mikoo, Oker, Pip and Volumes, Rasten plays in Harmonic Space Orchestra and has an impressive list of musicians with whom he has collaborated, including Antoine Beuger, Catherine Lamb, Magda Mayas, Taku Sugimoto, Stefan Thut....

The music on Svevning comprises Rasten's two-part title composition which was studio-recorded on March 3rd and 5th 2021 at CityLAB in Berlin. The piece plays for just over seventy-seven minutes, split nearly equally between the two parts. It is played on acoustic guitar by Rasten alone. He says that "Svevning" is an extension of one of his earlier pieces, "Limn." The YouTube clip below shows Rasten playing "Limn," including examples of his real-time retuning of the guitar while he is performing the piece. Listening to the music, Rasten's links to Wandeweiser are very clear; notes are sounded far enough apart so that they do not obscure one another, meaning that the beginning, middle and end of each one can be clearly heard, including its decay. Each of the tracks opens with a group of three notes which is repeated and subtly changes with each repetition; gradually three-note groups become four-note groups then five-note; the changes happen very subtly. but the music is ever-changing. As a whole, the music has enough repetition to be engaging throughout but enough change and variety to keep it interesting and mesmerising.