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Photo Credit – Einar Broch Johnsen
“[Clean Air’s] gently ascending chords send the song above the clouds,
but Torske’s slowly unfurling piano fills and electric keyboard solos cast a pensive air.
It speaks to Torske’s unmatched knack for making disco that’s not just body-moving
but thought-provoking: With ‘Clean Air’ the father of Norwegian nü-disco shoots
us up into a stratospheric headspace.” — Pitchfork
Next week sees the release of Bjørn Torske’s fifth solo album and first in eight years, Byen, out July 6th via Smalltown Supersound. Byen marks the 20-year anniversary of Torske’s solo career. Recorded over the past year at his home and studio in Bergen, Byen finds the veteran musician fusing two distinct sides of his catalog—clubby, inviting house music, and side-long pastoral ambience. It continues to show his flair for fusing indelible melody with propulsive rhythms.
After sharing lead single “Clean Air,” Torske presents “Gata,” a funky yet serene disco romp primed for the dancefloor. As described by Torske, “While Byen means ‘The City’ in Norwegian, ‘Gata’ means ‘The Street.’ This is where the youth of my early years in Tromsø had to spend their evenings since there was no place for them to go. But ‘gata’ is also a Rumanian word meaning ‘ready’ or ‘prepared,’ as in ‘let’s go,’ which to me fits just as well or even better than the title’s original meaning.”
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