Another Scandiwegian gem The Last Hurrah!! is Norwegian guitarist HP Gundersen along with a cornucopia of unusual acoustic instruments played by an international ensemble of great musicians. It’s floaty, light and often features vocals from Heidi Goodbye (great name) accompanied by female BVs. Infuriatingly the CD consists of a single 35 minute track. Mysteriously the artwork refers to track numbers with regard to specific musicians albeit the track names themselves are not numbered, another good reason to buy vinyl methinks. At its most interesting when the voices give way to a broad array of instruments including various guitars, drums and electric, acoustic and slide bass backed by Chinese guzheng (zither), flute, Hawaiian guitar and Norwegian Hardanger fiddle to name a few. It’s one of those albums that is too short by far, it would probably fit on a single vinyl LP although Rune Grammofon is offering double and single disc options.
I love the rich tone that the variety of instruments produces and would recommend this as an appealing bit of background music rather than something to sit down and scratch your goatee too. I’m not averse to a bit of the latter but it’s good to have a palette cleanser once in a while and this is an appealingly fresh example.