Jarle H. Olsen Quadrasonic

Norwegian guitarist Jarle H. Olsen’s new album Quadrasonic features a tightly produced collection of progressive metal compositions that are brimming with soaring melodicism, clever arrangements, and absolutely insane chops. Olsen is joined on the all instrumental disc by keyboardists Alex Argento and Manuel Soto, bassists Rodrigo Garcia and Jan Martin Kleveland, and drummer Bjarte K. Helland. Every track on Quadrasonic is credited to Olsen, and while the album is clearly dominated by his vision and impressive guitar playing, Argento’s keyboard work leaves a lasting impression here as well.

Though Olsen’s writing on Quadrasonic definitely has some neo-classical shades, it’s also highly progressive, resulting in a Vinnie Moore-meets-Planet X sort of vibe on several tracks. And while the majority of the songs are either uber-heavy (such as “Pro-10,” “Enigmatic Mind,” and the arpeggio-laden “Event Horizon”) or at least feature heavier sub-sections, there’s plenty of melodic playing and writing on the album as well. On the ballad “From Deep Within,” for example, Olsen uses deeply stacked guitar harmonies to create a dramatic, almost melancholic mood. Even here though, odd meters and tricky lines are employed which lend a prog-rock vibe to the track. “Dark Matter” and “Chimerical Moments” are perhaps the album’s best examples of Olsen’s ability to seamlessly blend his melodicism with balls-out metal. Heavy riffs ride alongside clever, memorable lines in these songs, while the arrangements are such that everything has room to breathe. Both of these tunes are greatly enhanced by Argento’s keyboard contributions as well – his tones and playing provide great texture, and the tandem lines he peels off with Olsen are unreal.

The album closes with a three-part suite (titled “Osiris”), which features an interlude-like middle section of keyboard accompanied solo guitar bookended by aggressive riff-driven tracks. The final song, “Osiris – Journey To Duat,” fittingly ends with some of Olsen and Argento’s best interplay on the album.

Throughout Quadrasonic, Olsen’s technical display is simply stunning. His picking and legato chops are as fast and clean as anything you are likely to hear, and his vibrato is very well-developed. While this album is certainly overflowing with amazing technique – from Olsen, and everyone else for that matter – it’s more than a mere shred record. Quadrasonic is an album where the chops are used first and foremost to execute the smart, progressive ideas the songs call for, and to enhance the overall vibe of the disc. If this fine, well-produced effort is any indication, Olsen is one player whom we are certain to hear more from in the future.

Jarle H. Olsen – Quadrasonic

Personnel:

Jarle H. Olsen – Guitars
Alex Argento – Keyboards
Rodrigo Garcia – Bass
Bjarte K. Helland – Drums
Jan Martin Kleveland – Bass on tracks 5, 7, 8, & 10
Manuel Soto – Keyboards on track 1

Tracklisting:

1. Exordium
2. Pro-10
3. Dark Matter
4. Enigmatic Mind
5. From Deep Within
6. Event Horizon
7. Chimerical Moments
8. Osiris – The Omnipotence
9. Osiris – Reawakening
10. Osiris – Journey To Duat - Abstract Logix

Norway hasn’t really provided that many international shredders, besides Ronnie Le Tekro and a handfull others. Now, young stringsman Jarle H Olsen is here to change that. His first solo album Quadrasonic is a really impressive affair. It’s actually been some time since I found an instrumental progressive album this interesting. With Jarle it’s not just the shredding that is in focus, it’s just as much about the songs. What I really like is that this actually feels more like a band effort, than a regular guitarist-shredding-his-ass-off album. Sure, there is tons of great soloing, but the songs are structured more like songs with vocals. You have your verses, choruses and bridges, although quite a lot of bridges here. The songs, like Dark Matter for instance, have great build ups, with nice dynamics happening. Here Jarle also shows a softer and more balanced side, without any overpowering distortion. There’s also a great explosive technical part in the end, where things happen all over the place. I also love the fact that he’s using real live, and outstanding, musicians to back him up. They do need to be mentioned, so here it goes: the outstanding technical drummer Bjarte K. Helland, Norway’s answer to Mike Portnoy, bass player Rodrigo Garcia who lays down a great foundation, plus proves he’s quite the technical player as well, and finally keyboard player Alex Argento whose playing may not be highly noticeable in some songs (you would definitely notice if it wasn’t there, though), while he really shines in songs like Event Horizon. Quadrasonic is a great album, at times in the same vein as George Bellas, before he started experimenting too much. Great songs, great playing, great production, a sure buy! - Janne Stark

Look at me, I'm a fucking guitar wizard, is what this album tells me. Featuring advanced technique and majestic progressive metal arrangements, the debut album "Quadrasonic" by Jarle H. Olsen defies my prejudices that all-instrumental prog metal falls into the category of a borefest of epic proportions by delivering some of the most back-chilling, amazing craftsmanship I've ran across in guitar music. "Quadrasonic" explodes Olsen directly into a group of elite guitar players that includes, among others, John Petrucci and Yngwie Malmsteen, an astounding tale of meteoric success from a man nobody's ever heard of before the release of this album.

Virtuoso, I believe, is the right word to use when describing Olsen's guitar ability. Seldom have I heard music so technically advanced, yet so beautifully structured and melodically appealing where the lead guitar is pretty much the only instrument that matters. Song after song features larger-than-life guitar solos, each more astonishing than the one before, ranging from ass-kicking awesome to the hair-raising kind. I suppose a comparison are in order, so how about this: "Train Of Thought"-era Dream Theater, except no need for vocals to ruin your concentration on the guitars. Olsen provides similar levels of instrumental brilliance and majestic soundscapes to compete with even footing with that seminal record. How's that for a comparison?

Best of all, "Quadrasonic" is extremely varied. Each song owns a unique guitar signature, not necessarily in terms of tone or sound, but in terms of how the song progresses, the speed, the pitch, the tempo, that sort of thing. It enables the listener to uphold interest from start to finish...which isn't that difficult given the sheer amount of ridiculously awesome guitar wizardry. Usually I hate these kinds of "show off" releases, but Jarle plays with so much conviction that it's easy to decipher his undying love for all things guitar in his life. It's as if he lives each note, each structure through his instrument as he plays it. And though I realize "Quadrasonic" isn't going to appeal to the majority of the readers of Rockfreaks.net, in its own genre, it is nothing short of a masterpiece. - Rock Freaks

Norge är väl i första hand inte känt för sina shredders. Visst finns där otroligt duktiga och hyfsat namnkunniga strängbändare som till exempel Ronnie Tekrø, Mads Eriksen, Tore Moren och Terje Rypdal, men något i närheten av Yngwie Malmsteen har de väl inte. En ny talangfull kille, som dock visar att konsten att leverera tung, flyhänt progressiv gitarrmusik lever för fullt i grannlandet, är Jarle H. Olsen. Han har en otroligt snygg sweepingteknik, med snygga rena toner och en snabbhet som imponerar. Men, han besitter även en skön känsla i sitt spel vilket ger ett stort plus i kanten. Jarle har precis släppt en egenfinansierad skiva att kolla in. - Fuzz Magazine

See above url for entire interview. - Guitar 9

It was a few weeks ago, in an endless afternoon, warm and boring, that my hunger for new music claimed more than ever, and I decided to swim out to the uncharted dark seas of cyber-ocean, longing for something to whet my appetite. Almost accidentally I found Quadrasonic, by Jarle H Olsen, I smelled its fresh blood from the first note and although the first song was enough to appease my hunger, I still wanted more. A few days after that, the great hunter, lady herself, introduced to me the whole album, and blinded by greed I devoured all tracks, a thousand times to reach exhaustion. Finally I realized: It’s not the white shark which devours the meat of the sea lion, is the sea lion which possess and takes over the shark. Quadrasonic has taken over my mind and filled my soul and ears with mastery.

Jarle H Olsen is a Norwegian guitarist, “maestro” shredder, who started playing the guitar at the age of 12, and today, with consummate skills, his own individual style, clean and fascinating is often being described as a harder version of Yngwie Malmsteen, or a mixture between him and John Petrucci. After playing for several local bands and with many own compositions and ideas, Jarle decided to start his own project (JHOP). His first solo album, Quadrasonic, is a perfect example of a smart balance between virtuosity and raw passion.

I have something to confess… I never had a very open ear for instrumental metal, some years ago I tried to explore some bands and I had no success, unfortunately some bands fall into the mistake of ramming the listener with ridiculously complex melodies, with guitars and the other instruments. This becomes the songs monotonous and unintelligible for a common ear, confusing the listeners and causing them to lose interest and “hear” without “listen”. Jarle and company have managed to undo this prejudice and they have brought us songs with a constant and enveloping atmosphere, a guitar sharpened as a sword, which shines and is the center of attention, but does not exclude the rest of the army of the battle. The first track, “Exordium”, immediately immobilizes the muscles of the face and, like that memorable scene from A Clockwork Orange, a disturbing atmosphere opens your eyes with metal hooks, making you listen and feel in every atom of your body the announcement of the earthquake that’s coming. Pro-10 starts without warning, Jarle not mince his words, and delivers from the first second with power, tone, and a technical lead guitar that seems to speak with every note. In “Dark Matters”, we found a smoother running, solid progressive / modern metal base, dark riff on throughout the song, drawing dynamic lectures; many things happen and move in every corner of the song, chaos in perfect sync. “Enigmatic Mind” starts with an intro ala Symphony X (or ala Dream Theater, depends on what angle you see it), and Jarle’s clean style flows naturally and deliciously. Jarle is truly a virtuoso, but is much more than that, he is a virtuoso that involves his heart and soul into his compositions and his playing. Proof of this is “From Deep Within”, a sort of melancholic song on his guitar weeps and speaks in an unknown and beautiful language.

With tracks like “Event Horizon” and “Chimerical Moments” you just cannot stay indifferent to the magnificence of the structures, Jarle’s explosive technique, the insane and powerful sweep picking arpeggios and harmonies along the songs and the atmosphere created by the essential grandeur and majestic keyboards execution by Alex Argento. All this facts keep the listener’s attention alive and grip the hearts strongly. Finally, Jarle gives three songs, “Osiris – The Omnipotence”, “Reawakening” and “Journey to Duat”. The three tracks are, at least for me, masterpieces of modern and experimental art in its most pure and high shape, there is just no need of lyrics or vocals, a real treat for the gods, the perfectly balanced mechanism between speed and melody.

Summarizing, Jarle H Olsen has given new impetus to what instrumental prog metal means, with an impressive and eclectic set of influences, reminding the exquisite technique and tasty style of Kiko Loureiro. Jarle has enriched and modernized the genre and is fairly considered one of the great ones, Being his first album, Quadrasonic shows fresh new blood, beautiful and exciting creations, it keeps a line through the whole album, but there are always unexpected stuffs, and you can get hear it thousands of times, always finding hidden new parts and enjoying every second. An instrumental album without boring or eternal corridors, where there’s no need of lyrics or a voice to understand the stories, because the guitar screams poems in its own universal language. An album for guitarists and all fans of Malmsteen, Petrucci and Friedman, perfect for the fans of my all time favorite Jason Becker. And for the fans that without much knowledge of musical technique, claim for a shredder with melodic power and soul, able to blow their minds.

5 words: Speed, rhythm, passion, virtuosity and epicness. - Lady Obscure Magazine