Bjørn Riis - Everything to Everyone
Fourth solo album from Airbag man, this is a delight.
Bjørn Riis is a member of Norwegian outfit Airbag, and Everything to Everyone is his fourth solo release. His bandmate, Henrik Fossum, joins him here on drums, and the line-up is completed by the wonderful Kristian Hultgren of Wobbler on bass, Simen Valldal Johannessen on piano, and the impressive Mimmi Tamba assisting on vocals. Riis himself does everything else.
Run kicks off proceedings, and the intro section reminds one of Porcupine Tree and you notice immediately the impressive rhythm section beneath the screaming guitars. When this is complete, there is a very quiet interlude with some heavy breathing before an acoustic guitar accompanies a delicate piano piece. When the acoustic guitar provides us with a beautiful solo, you take notice, and Riis provides for some interesting keyboards before the heavy guitar riffs kick back in. As an instrumental introduction to the album, this track impresses.
Lay Me Down is the first of two ten-minute plus tracks on the album, and we are introduced to Riis singing on the album, as he sings of searching for himself and drifting far away. This is clearly a very introspective and personal piece of music, and I really like Tamba’s vocal contribution as the two harmonise on a track which, despite its personal nature, is extremely accessible. There are bursts of electric guitar energy in this track, but it is at its heart a melodic work, and the electric guitar solo we are provided with three and a half minutes in is a delicious piece and this leads us into at five minutes in an altogether more expansive rock passage where once again the rhythm section crackles with energy beneath the heavy riffing. Riis then provides further evidence of just how good he is at utilising quieter passages to bringing atmosphere and thoughtful contrasts to his music. Hultgren is deeply impressive with his bass licks in this passage, and Riis gives us a blues masterclass as the track denouement slowly builds in intensity before the final half minute fading into silence. This is a very strong track.
The Siren opens delicately with piano and acoustic guitar. I like the thoughtful vocals here as Riis talks about the female object of the song title with her pale blue eyes and when you touch her skin, she will pretend you are someone else, dancing alone for everyone else. This is a song of unrequited love and when the bluesy guitar solos come in, they represent that as much as the lyrics themselves. Enjoy the video below, which was filmed by Anne-Marie Forker (you Marillion fans especially will be familiar with her). This is a deeply impressive piece of music and one of my favourites of the year.
Every Second Every Hour is the longest piece on the album weighing in at over 13 minutes long. It never outstays its welcome from the opening, with mournful keyboard chords as he sings of always being on the run, always on the move, with the past catching up with him and now knowing where he has been or where he is going to, to the closing blues infused guitar solos, and it is perhaps this track which best encapsulates that somewhat disturbing album cover shot of Riis almost wholly wiped out by a white paint effect. The mood really darkens three minutes in with some distorted vocals screaming out against a wall of sound and a guitar solo which is relentless in its dark blues. When the track then settles into another of those impressive interludes, the bass is pulsing a la Waters in his prime against a backdrop of keys and a thumping drum riff before the guitar once again takes centre stage halfway through. The passage which then follows is perhaps the closest we get to the parent band’s original tag as a Pink Floyd Experience, because this is very reminiscent of Floyd circa Animals, especially with the bass riff. This is, however, only a fleeting moment before the heart of the track reasserts itself. The guitar solos are a delight and very powerful in what is an extremely enjoyable track.
Descending is the shortest piece on the album at 4:33, and I love the expressive guitar solo which takes over proceedings some half a minute in, with a subdued acoustic guitar and some thoughtful keyboard and vocal effects taking us into an essentially psych track, before we get something which might seem to be completely at odds with all around it when the track explodes providing us with some extremely heavy and almost industrial guitar-led noises, but somehow it all fits together very well. It shouldn’t, but it does, and this is the hallmark of a very clever musician. The gentle acoustic guitar chords at the end are cut off suddenly, and we are then into the album closer, the title track.
This is another very reflective piece of music in which Riis speaks of wanting to move closer to “you”, and the evocative nature of this is bolstered by the delightful vocals of Tamba returning to the fray. I particularly like the keyboards which soar above the vocals on this track accompanied by more lovely piano work by Johannessen. Riis treats us to more delightful and moving guitars in this track before it then expands deliciously with some thundering riffs from all concerned before the urgent piano plays us out. The video below is also produced by Forker.
Riis has produced for us in this album an extremely powerful and enjoyable piece of work which, notwithstanding the brief Floyd & PT influenced sections I mention above, is a deeply individual and unique expression of where he is as an artist and as a human being in 2022. Therefore, do not take a huge amount of notice from elsewhere that this is somehow a kind of Gilmour or Floyd covers album, because it is not. It stands very strongly in its own right and is highly recommended.