Reviews:

Audio Mixers: Erik Honore; Jan Bang.
Audio Remasterer: Helge Sten.
Arrangers: Helge Sunde; Jan Bang.
From Norway, Arve Henriksen is a trumpeter and composer whom it's difficult to hang an easy label on. He's grounded in classical music and is also a jazz player (the group Supersilent), but the spare, stark strains of Japanese folk music--especially those of the shakuhachi flute--have strongly influenced him as well. Henriksen's approach on CARTOGRAPHY involves the layering of instruments and voices--live, studio recorded, and sampled--for atmospheric soundscapes and ambient mini-symphonies. Call him an abstract sonic painter or just a musician, but CARTOGRAPHY is a shimmering mirage/melange of flowing, soothing, and stimulating sounds.

Personnel: Arve Henriksen (trumpet); David Sylvian (vocals, programming, sampler); Verene Adronikov, Trio Medieval, Anna Maria Friman (vocals); Arnaud Mercier (various instruments, electronics); Eivind Aarset (guitars); Helge Sunde (strings, programming); Erik Honore, St†le Storlokken (synthesizer, sampler); Jan Bang (keyboard bass, programming, sampler); Lars Danielsson (double bass); Audun Kleive (drums, percussion, programming, drum programming); Trio Medi‘val (sampler); Vytas Sondeckis.

Like his countryman and fellow trumpeter Nils Petter Molvær, this Norwegian soundscapist, whose style is influenced by the Japanese shakuhachi flute, explores the chillier side of Miles Davis—not only in his austerely wide-ranging performances, but in his willingness to expand his sound through electronic effects and post-production.