Here it finally is, the debut album of this unique Norwegian improv trio One Small Step, with tap dancer Janne Eraker (Rhythm is a Dancer, Øy), fiddle player Vegar Vårdal (Breibeint, Rusk) and Clean Feed bass player Roger Arntzen (Chrome Hill, Ballrogg). They started out as a tap / double bass duo when Janne was based in Rotterdam back in 2011, and Roger provided the harmonic base of the duo. When Vegar came along in 2016 they started the process of evolving their combined tap-string sound, leading up to their first album, recorded in the middle of the pandemic in 2021. One Small Step joined forced with sound engineer Audun Strype and video fotographer Jørn Stenersen and booked a temporary closed stave church in Oslo – the beautiful Stave Church from Gol, located at the Norwegian Museum of Cultural History in Oslo. The stave church is approximately from 1200, and was preserved from Gol when they wanted to build a new church around 1880. The amazing church, which has an fantastic interior and its amazing sounding old floor board, made Janne’s tap dance sound out of this world.
The trio spent a full day at the church, recording and filming for hours, and the result is comprised into these four epic album tracks.

The missing vinyl
The process of recording, mixing, mastering and releasing One Small Step’s debut album «Gol Variations» was at every step of the way made with the vinyl in mind as the final end product. But a combination of Covid-19 and major record label dominance has created a shortage in production materials and insane waiting time for receiving the final product, which in particular is hitting underground artists and independent labels. One Small Step has found itself in the midst of all this, and unfortunately had to abandon their long awaited dream of releasing its debut album on vinyl. However, the album’s transition into the CD format was made with an audiophile experience in mind, still portraying the main idea of the music organized for the two sides of a vinyl, even making some extra silence between track three and four, to give the illusion of changing the vinyl side to side B, how this music originally was intended to be experienced. We think we have made a beautiful “vinyl”-CD – album experience, and we hope you will enjoy it too! Cheers, Janne, Vegar and Roger.

All music is improvised by One Small Step

Recorded by Audun Strype at Gol Stave Church, at the Norwegian Museum of Cultural History – Oslo, Norway, June 2, 2021 | Mixed and mastered by Audun Strype at Strype Audio, Oslo, Norway
Produced by One Small Step and Audun Strype | Executive production by Pedro Costa for Clean Feed | Design and Artwork by Travassos