The response to this album will depend almost entirely on whether the listener regards Norwegian electronic musician Hans-Peter Lindstrøm’s Seventies-synth-wizard-goes-disco thing as tasty noodle or just noodle.
He’s tried on many hats over the years since the righteous hype around Oslo’s “cosmic disco” scene thrust him into the limelight a few years into this century, but Everyone Else is a Stranger sees him return to core territory.
One gets the sense that Lindstrøm simply pootles along in his country retreat studio, tinkering, the vagaries of musical fashion an irrelevance, as he indulges in whatever takes his fancy, whether journeys into prog (as with his indulgently self-referential Todd Rundgren collaboration), Eighties electro-soul (such as his Christabelle team-up), or uncategorisable Balearic experimentation, as on his inconsistent last album, 2019’s On a Clear Day I Can See You Forever.
“Balearic” is a key word, actually, that much abused term used to describe a sprawling, random range of tunes that sound good as the sun sets or rises over the sea in Ibiza (preferably as if it was 30+ years ago). Opener and single “Syreen” is a genial Vangelis-ish bouncer with twinkling optimistic guitar-like chimes. Very Balearic. At seven minutes long, it’s the shortest of the four tracks, two of the others being over ten minutes. One of those is “Nightswim”, a cheeky steal of the central motif from Roy Budd’s excellent theme to Get Carter, transforming it into a slow-building Giorgio Moroder-ish chugger.
Of the other two, “Rind” is the least catchy and effusive, eight minutes of electronic mood, but the closing title track, a slower, more contemplative thing, is lovely, warm and bubbly, its distant choral voices and organ sounds offering an ecclesiastical feel, before paring back to an eventually bleepy church-of-MDMA meets Afro-chill float-down. Bottom line, if you’re in the “tasty noodle” camp, three of the four here will see you right when you’re in that particular balmy, loved-up, late night mood.
Below: listen to "Syreen" by Lindstrøm
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