Erik Wøllo

Norwegian composer Erik Wøllo gained recognition chiefly through his creation of expansive, atmospheric ambient and new age recordings built around layered guitars and synthesizers. At the same time he produced multiple pieces for modern classical groups along with scores for ballet, theater productions, multimedia installations, and production music libraries, while also venturing into techno, downtempo, and world fusion idioms. He operates Wintergarden Studio in Fredrikstad, Norway, handling his own projects there as well as recordings by the EBM group Apoptygma Berzerk. Drawing on prior experience in jazz and progressive rock, Wøllo launched his recording activity in 1980 yet crystallized a personal approach with the 1985 solo album Traces. Later projects have spanned the acoustic, roots-oriented Guitar Nova from 1998 and the Berlin School-styled Different Spaces of 2017, plus Afro-beat-inflected partnerships with Ivory Coast-born musician Kouame Sereba. Extensive joint releases have also linked him to ambient figures such as Steve Roach, Ian Boddy, and percussionist Byron Metcalf.

Born and raised in Hemsedal, Norway, Wøllo took up guitar at age eleven and developed an affinity for progressive rock bands including Pink Floyd and Emerson, Lake & Palmer. He entered professional music in 1980, performing with jazz ensembles such as Celeste, whose album Design by Music appeared in 1983. That same year saw his fusion-oriented solo debut Where It All Begins, followed by Dreams of Pyramids in 1984; he also issued the soft jazz set Trio alongside vibraphonist Rob Waring and woodwind player Jan Wiese. By 1984, however, he had chosen to disband his groups and concentrate exclusively on solo electronic work, treating the studio itself as a creative tool.

The 1985 Cicada Records release Traces marked a decisive shift and stands among his most celebrated recordings. Silver Beach arrived two years later. During the 1990s he placed four albums with Origo Sound, opening with Images of Light in 1990 and closing with the ambient techno outing Dimension D in 1997 under the alias Exile. In the mid-nineties he and Svalastog also issued a self-titled techno EP as the short-lived project Pacemaker. After the solo Transit in 1996 came the acoustic Guitar Nova in 1998, then the tranquil Wind Journey in 2001 and the contrasting The Polar Drones in 2003. Spotted Peccary reissued several earlier titles in the early 2000s while adding Emotional Landscapes in 2003, Blue Sky, Red Guitars in 2004 (which contained two Kraftwerk covers), and Elevations in 2007.

Although prior output had been largely solo, 2009 brought four collaborative albums involving Bernhard Wöstheinrich, Deborah Martin, Steve Roach, and Frank Van Bogaert, with most of those partnerships continuing. Wøllo and Kouame Sereba issued Bako (Ambient Afro-Beat) in 2010, having first worked together on the 1993 album Kilimandjaro.

The 2010s became Wøllo’s busiest period. Through Projekt he delivered multiple titles, among them another Roach collaboration titled The Road Eternal in 2011, assorted solo works, reissues, and the 2015 compilation Visions. He also began a series of projects with DiN label head Ian Boddy, starting with Frontiers in 2012; Weltenuhr, recorded with Bernhard Wöstheinrich, appeared on the same imprint in 2014. Additional library music collections emerged via De Wolfe Music, the first two Ambisonics volumes dating from 2013. In 2016 he and Byron Metcalf released the joint album Earth Luminous. The double-CD Different Spaces surfaced in 2017, succeeded by further Projekt releases Cinematic, Threshold Point, and Infinite Moments. Meridian, his third album with Boddy, came out on DiN in 2018. Smalltown Supersound issued Sources, a set of pieces recorded between 1986 and 1992, in 2019.