Norwegian duo Konradsen are back with “Efficiency,” in collaboration with singer-songwriter Beharie. “Efficiency” was not composed in a hurry but rather with patience. “Efficiency” opens like something lived in, as if you’ve been invited into a love that doesn’t need to be audible to matter. Borrowing a bit from the jazz singer Solveig Slettahjell’s rendition of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s “Borrowed Time,” “Efficiency” considers a love you may have outgrown or that no longer seems important but is memorable.
There’s a maturity here that feels quite relatable, representing that moment where two people lose touch with each other but can still feel it between them. Jenny Marie Sabel’s voice has a thin clarity that sits well Beharie. Eirik Vildgren’s multi-instrumentalist touch crafts a sound arrangement that is rich but unforced. Gently warped guitar lines by Martin Miguel Almagro Tonne and Hans Olav Settem crochet through the track, led by a steady pulse from Erlend Vesteraas' bass and Ivar Myrset Asheim's drums.
Saxophone, flute, celloing and pedal steel, played by Runa Husøy, Johanna Orellana, Ellen-Martine Gismervik and Håkon Brunborg, drift in and out like fleeting thoughts against the song’s meditative drift. “Efficiency,” doesn’t straight-up pursue perfection or resolution, rather it embraces the slow and imperfect practice of staying connected proving that some love don’t need urgency to survive.
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