Lindstrøm - It’s Alright Between Us As It Is

The Guardian 80

(Smalltown Supersound)

Oslo producer Hans-Peter Lindstrøm, already known for being pretty cosmic, went further out than ever before with his last album, a collaboration with Todd Rundgren that turned them both to spaghetti in a psychedelic black hole. He’s now back out the other side, making his traditional “space disco”, but with some beautiful acid-flashback flourishes. Spire and Tensions evoke cocktail hour at an Ibizan villa, before But Isn’t It and Shinin nicely showcase house and Italo songcraft. All pleasant enough, but Lindstrøm then levels up in the final third, with Drift, a hail of petals that recalls Orbital’s Belfast, and the jazz piano that poignantly destabilises closing tracks Bungl (Like a Ghost) and Under Trees. The former is also invigorated by stark poetry and black-feathery cooing from Jenny Hval, a gothic phantom haunting the club with a gravestone on her back.

Drowned In Sound 70

Part of Lindstrøm's appeal, however, is that, while he has a fairly defined sound, he as interested in diverting from it as much as he promotes it. Lindstrøm makes a crowd-pleasing sound across his records, generally presenting them as one continuous piece, which makes it no small wonder how he has achieved such success. However, his records generally feel like a long journey into the clubbing night, of which his latest It's Alright Between Us As It Is is consistent.

It's Alright Between Us As It Is by Lindstrøm

While the night starts off jaunty on opening couplet 'Spire' and the especially Terje-reminiscent 'Tensions', things soon descend into darkness. Lindstrøm has an excellent knack for choosing perfect guests and collaborators. Here, his three vocally indebted tracks feature Frida Sundemo, Grace Hall, Jenny Hval, all of who provide a similar thread on each of their tracks while also giving distinct performances. Sundemo's 'But Isn't It' starts off like a classic ode to Seventies disco, before being submerged into a wave of ambience that hits one with a cold shock, rather than the "chilled out" feel ambience usually provides. This segues into the much darker 'Versatile Dreams' which sends the listener into the darker half of the record.

Grace Hall's soulful vocals are a clear statement of a much more downbeat, later section of the night. Hall has been an excellent collaborator to Lindstrøm before on 2015 single 'Home Tonight', so it's not surprising to find her here, but she is a beacon of light in an otherwise moody and atmospheric track. Later on Hval, a recent Norwegian break-out artist herself, delivers her trademark spoken word poetry over the most sinister and disorientating track of the record, before ceding into finale 'Under Trees' which sounds rather like a warped remix of Radiohead's 'Everything in its Right Place'.

Overall, It's Alright Between Us As It Is is yet another solid entry into Lindstrøm's discography. It doesn't re-invent the wheel in terms of genre or what we expect of the Norwegian producer, but it just keeps things ticking along with exciting and unexpected flourishes at every turn, something he has continuously managed throughout his career. His ability to keep a coherent sound over what are often essentially 50-plus minute pieces and not be monotonous is fairly astounding, knowing exactly when to pull the trigger in terms of building tension and release in his material. Given this success, there's every chance Lindstrøm will join his countrymen in Terje and Hval in getting a much wider audience here.

Pitchfork 65

The Norwegian producer Hans-Peter Lindstrøm’s latest solo full-length feels breezily noncommittal. Each experiment—including a spoken word piece by Jenny Hval—dissolves into the next.

The Guardian 60

(Smalltown Supersound)

Hans-Peter Lindstrøm has more than a decade’s easy-going electronic percolation to his name. Lumbered with the “space disco” tag thanks to his love of an analogue synth wobble, Lindstrøm’s output can include 10-minute workouts of an avant-garde Boredoms track or the sort of polite female vocals people expect to hear on unthreatening dance tunes – Grace Hall’s pleasantries on Shinin’ fit that bill on his fourth solo album while the infinitely more interesting Jenny Hval crops up on a superior Bungl (Like a Ghost). Strip away the vocals, though, and these tracks – even Shinin’ – are powerful perpetual motion machines indebted as much to jazz (Under Trees) and house (Tensions) as disco; you want to start singing Don’t You Want Me by the Human League at the start of Spire.