Aquavit ..hummm..highly distilled spirits or water of life? I doubt one can find a reference to anything remotely to do with sounds and vision!


This story is familiar-not because you have heard them before (though in some cases maybe you have), but because they sound like things that don't happen all the time.

For most of us, the discovery of a new style of music means a trip to the record shop or a few clicks online to satisfy our need for more. Not so for San Francisco musician Michael Snyder, who was so enamoured of the sounds coming from Scandinavia that he flew over there to properly educate himself. This eventually led to an introduction to Robert Solheim, a Spain-based Norwegian musician with a similar love for the crisp Scandinavian sound. Together they formed Aquavit, and released their debut "Telepatia" in 2008. Fans of Massive Attack and Depeche Mode will find much to love here, but Aquavit don't restrict themselves to the sparse atmospherics and wintry beats common to northwestern Europe. On tracks like "Vigor" the sun comes streaming through with flamenco guitar offsetting the frosty soundscape, and on "I Like It" the dubby beats imply lazy afternoons on the beach rather than frigid strolls across the arctic tundra. This is electronic music for the well travelled. It combines ambient, techno, trip-hop and drum n' bass, with hidden whispers and things half said, all backed by that delicious wide angle Nordic sound that caused Snyder and Solheim to meet in the first place.