Ding Dong. You're Dead.

Ding Dong. Youre Dead. marks the return of Norwegian guitarist and composer Hedwig Mollestads return to her long-standing trio with bassist Ellen Brekken and drummer Ivar Loe Bjornstad, just eight months after she led a sextet on Ekhidna, her first solo album. This outing marks her trios tenth anniversary. While its impossible to say for sure, it seems that the more jazz-forward musical signature of Ekhidna informed these proceedings. Theres a different feel at work -- theres more jazz-rock than Black Sabbath reflected in Mollestads still-molten guitar approach. In another shift, this date marks the groups first to feature compositions from Brekken, and she turns in two of the best on this set. Unlike most albums cut in the pandemic year of 2020, Ding Dong. Youre Dead. was recorded by the group working together in the studio, not sending in tracks or showing up to the room separately. As such, an organic musical kineticism just drips from these grooves. The Brekken-penned opener Leo Flash Return to the Underworld commences with a series of spiky, syncopated guitar riffs that simultaneously recall the King Crimson of Red and the Mahavishnu Orchestra of Visions of the Emerald Beyond. Her knotty, overdriven vamp is buoyed by a circular bass riff that moves in ever-widening, harmonically rich circles, and Bjornstads interlocking kick drum and tom-toms are underscored by fluid, authoritative cymbal work. Mollestad constructs a high-flying solo that registers the influences of both Bill Connors and Sonny Sharrock. All Flights Canceled directly references the handiwork of the pandemic in urgent rushes of punchy rock & roll riffs that bridge Dick Dale and Ray Russell. The title track moans into existence thanks to Brekkens resonant, canny arco playing. Her sonorous bow improvises across the lower register as Mollestad adds a spiny, moody, and minimal blues vamp atop sparse, syncopated percussion from Bjornstad. Gimbal is a true intersection of hard stoner rock and refracted jazz harmonics. Slow and plodding, Bjornstad ups the ante with his swinging, dancing kit-work. Brekkens Magic Moshroom (sic) seamlessly weds fusion and prog as Mollestad follows her upright bassline with tight, startlingly sharp arpeggios, sinewy blues lines, and metal vamps. The Art of Being Jon Balkovitch channels the inspiration of Freeway Jam from Jeff Becks Wired as the trio wed funky bass vamps, popping snare breaks, and expansive guitar harmonics. Closer Four Candles is a spectral, psychedelic guitar ballad whose roots emerge from the folk music of Mollestads native Norway and the British Isles. Bjornstad employs a platoon of percussion instruments in framing her tender, spooky guitar lines while Brekken offers an abstracted bassline that colors the lyric margins. Ding Dong. Youre Dead. showcases this trio at a peak, turning their music inside-out to discover what lies hidden inside it, then exposes all that to the open air. While the Mollestad group continue to develop and offer plenty of firepower, here they do it with nuance, sensitivity, and commanding authority. ~ Thom Jurek