Akron/Family
Akron/Family

Listening to their voices, their skilled guitars, their songwriting attitude, you wouldn't imagine that behind this name, reminiscent of veterans, are four Norwegian guys who have been living in the States for some time and have given life to an atypical folk which, although rooted in the experience of the greats of the genre, is contaminated by a myriad of contemporary trends.

Inserted in the neofolk scene, including artists like Animal Collective, CocoRosie, Skygreen Leopards, Devendra Banhart & Co., authors with disparate styles but united by a vague folk attitude, Akron/Family stand out for the atypicality that characterizes their work.

Their debut took place in 2004 with the self-titled album. An album that immediately garnered success from the public and critics, and that cannot leave one indifferent due to the skilled yet playful weaving that composes it. Every single piece is a gem, a surprise that gradually unfolds, an album that from start to finish never stops surprising us with the unusual combination of elements generally considered quite distant, and that so far few groups have managed to unite without strain (my thoughts go to Animal Collective or Matmos). But it's not about experimenting, no extreme experience, the album is pervaded by a delicate and refined harmony that is rarely broken.

Exemplary of the tone of the entire work is the first track ("Before And Again"), where a small guitar accompanies a warm "murmur" surrounded by barely suggested electronics. The singing is boisterous, suffering, and to emphasize the warmer parts, strings and off-key choruses also arrive; a strange drift that finally concludes the piece with flowing percussion overlaid with electronic noises. Yet it is not the most interesting track. But to sit here and describe each piece individually would be as pointless as it is difficult, precisely because the main characteristic of this group is variety. It seems there is a kind of discomfort with consistency, with linearity. Although the album is compact and coherent, the short tracks are a concentration of musical games, mood swings, timbre changes, and improbable experiments. If the classic is predominant, if the classic guitar/voice pairing is always in the foreground, the background is a stirring of sounds and noises (the impromptu glass percussion at the end of "Italy" is beautiful). It's unclear whether it's more the result of strange improvisations or a meditated and conscious work. One thing is certain, at least as far as I'm concerned, listening to Akron is not approaching with fear one of the many experimental experiences that many groups have conceived, it is engaging in a playful and entertaining whirlwind of sounds, carefree music that manages to combine melody with the beauty of the anomalous.

Akron is now a consolidated reality, the album reviewed has been followed by other excellent works, yet the strange beauty of this work remains unmatched in their discography, a work in which the ideas accumulated over the years seem to have been poured into. Simply a great album.