Pondering life’s journey and the choices we make along the way, Norwegian composer Runar Blesvik went to a dependable reference for inspiration. Taking cues from Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken”, Blesvik’s sixth album, All the Difference, adopts a light and playfully ruminative tone. Tracks here play out like soft machines gently whirring away or enchanted forests gradually coming to life, conjuring worlds he could point himself more towards in the future. In their own way, every note played, every additional instrument included, and each final track mixed and mastered (which was done by Blesvik himself in his home studio in Oslo) represents another avenue of possibility for Blesvik, another branch on his musical timeline.
Diversifying isn’t entirely new for Blesvik though. Six records in now and he’s been carefully folding in additional layers, textures, and instruments to his modern classical ambient style each time. On 2022’s Restore he even added in some vocalists, which was perhaps the most dramatic turn he’s taken since his first release back in 2018. All the Difference doesn’t boast any tracks that have quite the same significant change, but there new approaches are there for those who are looking.
“Off the Cuff” is perhaps the most surprising thing here, a lighthearted and sprightly offering with an improvisatory feel that lives up to its name. Taking jazzy cues from Dave Brubeck’s “Unsquare Dance”, piano figures trickle and dribble about the place as a double bass bobs alongside. It flickers with specks of joy as Blesvik explores the keyboard and continually embellishes the opening riff. Similarly imbued with a glint of sunshine are “Still” and “Constant”, which stir with a gentle momentum of piano, strings, and woodwind (courtesy of Arcobaleno String Quartet and Jussan Cluxnei). “Constant” has a welcome oaky tone that conjures a woodland of creatures, while “Still” twinkles with an airy tone.
Let there be no doubt though that Blesvik is still very much making music that sits best in the background; this is modern classical ambient music with a notable lean into the ambient side. “Still”, as pretty as it is, is waiting to soundtrack that perfect corporate training video. The saccharine “One and the Other” seems destined for a similar fate: the punctuating strings, clarinet, and dramatic drum track combining to sound like they have been composed specifically for a web ad about traveling to locations with rolling, lush landscapes. Ornate like clockwork these tracks may be, they sound like music made with strict artistic guidelines as opposed to music with any kind of personal stakes or feeling imbued into it.
If not for the background, then Blesvik’s music here does ask for an intimate listening setting. Opening track “Finding” has all the components you would expect from the Norwegian composer: soft piano dusted with grainy strings, like the sound of fading daylight. If there isn’t peace around you, you could easily miss it all, including the vinyl crackle adding texture on top of it all. Similarly, closing track “Through Glass” offers similar features listeners will have heard before (dusky ambience, a hymnal-like tone, a snippet of some outside noise appearing for a second), but in this instance it makes for a calming hum, like a settling peace echoing through a cathedral. By yourself and with good headphones, this is the kind of music to ruminate over while the streets outside are empty and dark.
Unlike the Robert Frost poem, Blesvik hasn’t really taken a path that could be constituted as “the one less traveled”. He mostly sticks to his now pretty well established style, relying on familiar compositional shapes and arrangements while peppering in some welcome new approaches (the aforementioned spontaneous wandering of “Off the Cuff” being the prime example). He’s not gone off the beaten path, but certainly does seem to peer at the other side every so often. Consisting of only six tracks, it’s a short and undemanding record for the most part. Put it on in the background of a busy place and it could either simply bleed into any surrounding noise or shyly colour the air around you. It won’t change the road you’re travelling on, but for a brief moment it’ll pleasantly and unobtrusively soundtrack the path you are on.