The recovery process hardly comes with trumpets. It comes more frequently without noise, as air in lungs after a long submarine excursion – and Norwegian musician Filip Dahl knows it without need of explanation. Learning to Breath Again is wordless, and even the guitar has to be more articulate than the language that stutter in its attempt to convey things. It exists as an instrumental space, which is highly personal and at the same time, global.
In the middle of Dahl, his lead guitar is firmly seated and with a voice that is made with a hand and not with the hammer. His electric lines are full of emotion, phrasing, weight and tone, every note of the composition seems to be carrying lived experience in itself. That persona has been developed in decades – decades of playing in rock bands in the 70s, as well as decades of work as a respected studio musician in Trondheim – and it creates an immediate fingerprint on what he plays. It is inspired by the vast expanses of Pink Floyd and the musical aspiration of Kansas, and the music he creates can be heartfelt, hopeful and gently thoughtful.
The song is light and open hearted rock. The warm tones of the piano and the faintly burning keys swirl around the guitar as soothing hands would and the slight drum beats keep all the movements without disrupting the silence. The music rises and falls naturally, to levels of intensity and then subdues back into a relaxed state, as does the slow and jerky beating of learning to breathe again after being stunned or grief-stricken.
The most striking is the healing attraction of the music. This cannot be pushed to the background, it seems to be a constant companion of grieving, anxious, ailing or just in need of silence. The fact that Dahl has taken an extended break with music and has come back as a solo artist means that he knows very well the healing power of music. Learning to Breath Again is a masterpiece of skill and a silent answer to the power of music to heal – wordless, enveloping and very human.
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