Aurora Records released the debut album of the Norwegian guitarist Ole Martin Huser Olsen. The album on September 23rd, 2022. “Lockdown Miniatures” describes an extraordinary time period of global lockdowns and crises. It is also a portrait of one of this generation’s most intriguing guitarists and 11-track album filled with contrasting miniatures for solo guitar. Ole Martin Huser Olsen was named “Performer of the Year” by the Norwegian Society of Composers in 2022. The critically acclaimed album will be available on vinyl from September 1st, 2023. 

This recording is a pure coincidence, and would not exist if it had not been for one extensive and very unfortunate circumstance, and one smaller but more fortunate one. I owe a rather reluctant thanks to the pandemic, as these pieces would not have been written or recorded without it. It was the lucky coincidence in form of a random comment after a concert where I had just performed several of the miniatures “....but this is a record!” that set everything in motion. I called Audun Strype the very next day and asked when he was available.  - Ole Martin Huser Olsen

The pieces in this album are characterized by deep musical contrasts, and have at first glance little in common other than the circumstances of their conception. Despite this, two, almost parallel musical directions gradually crystallize themselves.

The first axis goes a return trip to Hamar. And the music on this journey embraces both the unfamiliar as well as the more recognizable. In other words, it gradually meets our expectations. Here Lauri Supponen’s musical icon is left outside and alone in the end. Naturally. It is a different art form than the rest. It is anyway an epilogue. And a foreshadowing of future recordings.

​

The second axis starts with Charlotte Piene’s piece and ends with Lauri Supponen. The listening goes from the concrete and material to the gradually more abstract. Until we, in Supponen’s icon and every-day confession, lies on the verge of the transcendental. Hopefully above.

If so, Rui-Rahman's trip to Hamar might seem like a misunderstanding. Which it is. For the simple reason that he did not write that piece. It is the return, track 10, which is Jan Tariq’s written piece. 

The prologue is Ole Martin´s own small trick, having transposed the whole piece a major third down to the open and resonant strings of the guitar. These two possible ways of giving ear to the structure of this recording can certainly be added to.

The key has in any case been to show how the pieces converse with or contradict one another. As Joanna Rzadkowska’s essay implies, this is an expression of new communities within the music. And these deep-seated contrasts should be unproblematic. For they are deeply human.