Triage - Erik Honoré
Erik Honoré releases the final album in a trilogy that started with ”Heliographs” (2014) and ”Unrest” (2017). On ”Triage”, Honoré’s sonic collages are constructed from contributions by a stellar ensemble: Sidsel Endresen, Nils Petter Molvær, Arve Henriksen, David Toop, Eivind Aarset, Bjørn Charles Dreyer, Jan Bang, Kirke Karja, Mats Eilertsen and Anders Engen.
Erik Honoré's new solo album emerges as an intriguing exploration of sound, narrative and emotion, intertwining advanced sample-based techniques with literary inspiration and the distinct musical virtuosity of artists like Nils Petter Molvær, Arve Henriksen, and Sidsel Endresen. The compositions are carefully woven together by Honoré, who in addition to live-sampling and other laptop based strategies also worked extensively with synthesizers, treatments and field recordings. Although most of the album is created by Honoré’s restructuring and rearranging of instruments and voices that seldom existed in the same room at the same time, the album maintains the seamless quality that he always strives for in his productions.
Delving deeper into the realm of artistic fusion, ”Triage” also intricately weaves text extracts from writers such as Ezra Pound, Helen Coale Crew and Emily Dickinson, alongside poignant passages from World War 1 medical manuals, and texts by Erik Honoré himself. The texts served as starting points for all nine ”Triage” compositions, although only fragments have survived on tracks like ”The Bone Setter” and ”The Cantos” – the rest has been sacrificed after serving as inspiration for the soundscapes. But in some pieces, the texts are still featured in their entirety: Two Emiliy Dickinson poems, a poem by the lesser known American writer Helen Coale Crew, and the two pieces where Jan Bang sings Erik Honoré’s own lyrics.
This amalgamation creates a rich, metaphor-laden narrative that explores the often-blurred lines between dissonance and harmony that is also evident in the music. "Triage," a term traditionally associated with the process of prioritizing patient care on the battlefield, here serves as a metaphorical framework for the album's exploration of themes such as urgency, recovery, and the discernment of what we hold dear amidst chaos. Each track is a meticulously crafted soundscape where historical and contemporary voices converge, offering a reflective space for listeners to navigate the intricate layers of sound and meaning.
Erik Honoré’s approach invites listeners to explore the interplay between narrative and sound. During the composition, production and mixing phase – always parallel processes in Honoré’s work – Honoré explored the writings, the times, and the turbulent life stories of the featured authors, marked by personal struggles, artistic and ideological contradictions, and lasting brilliance. This inspiration, concrete and metaphorical, infused the music with a raw, authentic energy that should resonate deeply with contemporary listeners.
Through ”Triage,” Erik Honoré invites us on an audacious journey across temporal and emotional landscapes, where the avant-garde meets echoes of the past. The album is not merely a collection of musical ideas, but a carefully curated experience designed to challenge the listener – a profound, multi-dimensional exploration of the human condition.