Experimental Composer Kim Myhr Announces U.S. Shows & Shares 'VII'

The stunningly beautiful double album Hereafter is a new major work from guitarist/composer Kim Myhr, written for the 15-piece Stavanger-based ensemble Kitchen Orchestra. The album will be released on February 23 as a gatefold double LP, CD, and DL via SOFA and Kim shared "VI" to announce the album.

Today, Myhr shares the haunting opus "VII", enjoy the track HERE and pre-order Hereafter HERE. 

Hereafter consists of two main parts, a morning and evening raga, where the first part is darker and the second part is more uplifting. The two sections are divided into smaller sections for the listener's convenience.

Thus, sunrise and sunset, the sea and the shore, life and death, permeate the often-elegiac music on Hereafter, a stunning piece of music that ranks among Myhr's best works yet.

“Hereafter can be seen as a meditation on mortality and transience,” explains Myhr. “It was written at a time when the prime minister of Norway told the country's population that ‘you have to be prepared to lose someone dear to you'. It was like it was taken out of Tarkovsky's 'Sacrifice'. This atmosphere set the tone for  Hereafter, which was written in 2020. For me, this piece is about the  acknowledging and acceptance of disaster.”   

Kitchen Orchestra is a heterogeneous ensemble based in Stavanger with musicians coming from different musical scenes, a perfect match for Kim Myhr's music. The line-up includes drummers Ståle Birkeland and Dag Magnus Narvesen, Marius Munthe-Kaas on vibraphone, Øyvind Dale on organ and synthesizer, Johan  Egdetveit on accordion, Signe Irene Time on vocals and cassette player, Dag Egil  Njaa on laptop processing, two bass players John Lilja and Thomas Bang doubling on guitar as well as electric and double basses, string players Nils Erga and Jenni Witick, and horn players Arild Hoem, Petter Frost Fadnes, Gunhild Seim and Gaute Vikdal focusing primarily on the darker timbres with two baritone saxes, bass trombone, and trumpet. Kim Myhr himself plays both 12 and 6-string electric guitars. 

Myhr does special things with guitars and will bring his visionary approach to the instrument to the Borealis Festival in Bergen. The performance will open the festival as he creates dynamic physical sound worlds with the help of 50 12-string guitars engaging everyone from rusty guitar heroes, eager high school students, and enthusiastic campfire musicians. 

Kim Myhr's previous release Sympathetic Magic was utopian and deliriously optimistic. Andrew Jervis of Bandcamp called the expansive album, “A wonderfully sprawling piece of art” and Peter Margasak at The Wire said, "At times the contrapuntal feast recalls the sound of Tortoise circa TNT… At its best, the recording achieves a mesmerizing sonic confab somewhere between the desert and outer space.”

Myhr will be bringing Sympathetic Magic to the U.S. in May for shows in Chicago and Philadelphia. More dates will be added and all information can be found below.

Kim Myhr Sympathetic Magic Tour Dates: 

May 16 - Chicago, IL - Constellation [TIX]

May 17 - Philadelphia, PA - Are Nova Workshop [TIX] 

(Photo Credit: Orfee Schuijt)

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