Opsvik & Jennings
Commuter anthems
Rune Grammofon
Akin to the soundtrack of a Charlie Kaufman film, "Commuter anthems", the second album from the Norwegian-American duo Opsvik & Jennings, is a bizarre concept album exploring the in-between world one enters when traveling from the realm of their personal lives towards the structured environment of a professional existence; in many ways it's an exploration of being nowhere in particular. Built up through layers of overdubbed instruments, a few electronic touches, and the obvious talents of the pair, the record is an exercise in controlled chaos and improvisation – and somehow it stills retains meaning. "Commuter anthems" is a sequence of daydreams, much like my morning commute from the District's suburbs into the city – eyes scanning the parking lot motorways lining the Metro tracks, the occasional police sirens rushing to an accident, the clacking of the train's wheels. Opsvik & Jennings have replaced all of these elements with instruments, horns replaced with strings, distracted longings traded for tracts of dreamy melodies, and the entire journey is sketched in the bizarre pacing and structuring of their compositions. Of the same tenor as Minotaur Shock, but less focused or restrained, this album isn't one to enhance a summer's day, rather to reflect upon the hours lost scuttling to stay in one place.
- Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson