Pascal Pinon - Sundur [LP]

LP version. Pascal Pinon's third album is the Icelandic duo's rawest and most diverse musical statement within the frame of their folk-influenced, minimalistic sound. Sundur comprises material written over the course of one and a half years. While most parts of the album are sparsely orchestrated and follow the experimental lo-fi-leaning aesthetics of the duo's previous two records, Pascal Pinon (MORR 101CD/LP, 2010) and Twosomeness (MORR 121CD/LP, 2012), the overall tone has become rawer with it's metronome-like rhythms, occasional synth lines and driving piano melodies. Sundur lends it's title from the Icelandic proverb "sundur og saman" (meaning "apart and together") and could be considered the companion of Twosomeness. Thematically, it reflects upon the voluntary separation of the two sisters. "We had never been apart our entire lives until we finished touring with our last album", remembers Jófrídur Akadóttir. While Asthildur went to Amsterdam to study classical piano and composition and back to Iceland, her sister Jófrídur went to tour the world with her other band, Samaris. It turned Pascal Pinon's writing process upside down. Although Asthildur and Jófrídur frequently visited each other in the Netherlands and respectively Iceland from early 2014 until late 2015 to finish the writing process, the geographical separation also influenced their compositions and thus the album as a whole. "The fact that we spent so much time apart creates completely different connections between the songs than on Twosomeness, which for me makes it more diverse in the best way possible", says Asthildur. Indeed Sundur sees two different people arriving at their shared creative goal. Due to a conflict of schedules, Asthildur and Jófrídur ended up recording the bulk of Sundur in only two days. Their father, composer Aki Asgeirsson, helped out with the engineering and contributed percussions played with scrap metal he brought with him, including discarded parts of airplanes. While few of those details will be audible on the surface, the unpolished sound design and added bits are crucial to Sundur. "It makes the album feel more real and raw which is what it essentially is all about," explains Jófrídur. "It's very sparse and a lot closer in the approach and in regards to the sound of our very first album. It's kind of funny that seven years later, we would go back to the same place where we were at age 14!"