In Grimstad, on the southern coast of Norway, there wasn’t much local music to interest Kjetil Morland. As a teenager his eyes and ears were set southwestwards, towards Britain. He channelled The Beatles and Blur, The Clash and Nick Drake.  As soon as he could leave, he would…

In Shoreham-By-Sea, on the southern English coast, for as long as they can remember the only thing school friends Ross Martin (guitar, piano/keyboards), Mike Hillman (guitar), James Penhallow (bass) and Ric Wilson (drums) wanted to do was write music. They gigged relentlessly around Brighton and London.  They worked on their songs, and their live shows. Several singers came and went.  As soon as they could give up their day jobs, they would…

By 2005, Morland was studying Graphic Design at Kingston University in London. He gigged around the capital’s dive-bars and grot-clubs, a fresh-faced troubadour with a great line in stunning melodies. But there were a lot of singer-songwriters in Pete Doherty trilbies cluttering the London scene. Plus, Morland had written a lot of his ideas with whole band arrangements in mind.

As it happened, Morland’s girlfriend was from Shoreham. She knew Martin, Hillman, Wilson and Penhallow had just lost a frontman. The timing was perfect.  Introductions were made at a beer festival in Shoreham.

“As soon as we met him we decided to go off and rehearse together, see what happened,” recalls Martin. The Shoreham boys had a bunch of instrumental pieces they’d written – could this Norwegian come up with some melodies? Equally, would these English strangers be able to help Kjetil’s ‘folky’ compositions burst into colourful, clattering, noisy life?

Wilson still remembers Morland’s first song that day. “He sat down and you’d think he might have been nervous, playing in front of four strangers. But he sat down and sang this song he’d written, an early version of ‘That’s All’.  I got goosebumps. I filmed it on my phone and kept playing it.”

Absent Elk then spent two years writing, gigging around the UK,  and creating their own DIY buzz.

Working with producer Toby Smith, Absent Elk have now crafted their debut album, which will be on the shelves on the 19th October 2009. 

The camaraderie that comes of five best mates who’ve come together with a shared, intense enthusiasm for their music is immediately apparent. “We’re all from seaside towns on southern coasts,” notes Morland in his impeccable English. “I feel we’re all kinda similar personalities, and that’s one of the reasons we clicked.” 

As Martin puts it, “we’ve come a long way together, but we like to think this is only the start…”

So, a boy meets band story, but has it really worked? Open up the first song, ‘Sun & Water’, and the answer has to be a resounding yes. It’s a glorious, epic, anthemic slice of pop-rock that should be the band’s first single (but isn’t). Stunning melody and performances, fabulous production that wrings out every lovely nuance of this composition. Next track ‘Emily’ goes further down the pop route and adds a driving rhythm to another strong melody, top vocal and harmonies… difficult to fault if one’s looking from a radio-friendly perspective. ‘My First Guitar’ treads a more medicocre path but the band comes back strongly with the first single from the album due for release on the 30th November 2009. It’s a reflective, slow-paced song with an especially pleasant and expressive vocal performance from Morland, and is driven by hook-laden choruses that will no doubt be sung by audiences at live concerts.

‘Let Me Know’ opens with an attractive acoustic guitar strum before Morland arrives with another very strong vocal performance that meanders along before soaring the heights. There’s another strong melody in a song that is epic in scale, and will be another live and radio favourite - shame about the awful backing vocals that seem totally out of place. Twinkling piano notes introduce the bouncing pop of ‘Cannibals’ but before you know it those dreadful ba-la-ba-ba backing vocals intrude and certainly don’t help in rescuing a pretty ordinary song.

‘Queen Of Hearts’ and ‘Where I’d Rather Be’ fail to improve things with the most mediocre lyrics and no other redeeming features. ‘Comfort Or Amuse’ is a slow, simpler, contemplative ballad with another excellent vocal contribution from Morland and some ethereal string moments. ’That’s All’ repeats the formula pretty much but with a stronger melody and lyrics. The final track, ‘Nothing I Can Do’ comes close to achieving the standard set by a couple of earlier tracks. It’s a mix of dark and light but the lighter moments are over-emphasised and yes, those dreadful backing vocals almost relegate the song from premier league to 1st division.  But it just about survives as one of the best songs here.

I counted 3 good songs, 2 average and rated the rest as mediocre. I have no doubt that the good songs will give this album a substantial sales lift through airplay, but it’s just not enough, in one of the best album release years ever, to lift this above the gathering crowd. I would also have liked to see a little more adventure but perhaps that will come with album number two. I hope so…

3.5/5