discography

in a field

In his sophomore album ‘In a Field’, Eli Tausen á Lava uses his minimal musical language to convey a broad range of personal experiences and associations — ranging from his time spent between the Faroe Islands and Sweden to nostalgic memories of childhood films and video games. The illustrative titles of his pieces imbue the music with meaning and provide the listener with a way to connect to it.

While stillness and simplicity remain the principal flavours of ‘In a Field’, Eli Tausen á Lava has started to approach a more post-classical style, writing shorter, more melodic pieces and incorporating electronic elements to create a richer atmosphere. Still, the lush harmonies, clear form and use of polymetry and repetition that define his musical aesthetic are as apparent as ever.

Because of a type of associative synaesthesia, Eli Tausen á Lava experiences his music as having various colours. As opposed to the deep purple tones of his debut album ‘Impressions’, he feels ‘In a Field’ has a distinctly vibrant sky-blue colour — something he illustrates in the album’s cover art, which depicts a sky-blue field under a pink sky.

impressions

Eli Tausen á Lava invites you to disconnect from the constant buzz of the world and step into the lingering minimal atmospheres of Impressions, his debut album.

Impressions provides its listeners with a neutral space to experience music without being told what to feel. The album consists of three thematically related piano works: In Fog, Ripples and Bells. They are separate works but have more similarities than differences: Repeating and overlapping patterns characterize all three works, and they stay in the same key for the entirety of their durations. Still, they are continuously changing — albeit very slowly.

The composition of In Fog, Ripples and Bells was heavily influenced by the concept of letting go and allowing the pieces to take shape by themselves. Eli used Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt's creativity-inducing cards, Oblique Strategies, extensively during the composition process.

Impressions came into being during the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. The need to disconnect from the constant bombardment of information about the pandemic shaped the album, which in a way came to embody the suspended world humanity suddenly found itself in.