Rural Tapes
Rural Tapes has announced his fourth album Oneiric to be released via Clay Pipe Music on October 17th 2025.
Oneiric is another expansive and enthralling record from the highly acclaimed Rural Tapes moniker of Norwegian producer and multi-instrumentalist Arne Kjelsrud Mathisen.
As the title suggests Oneiric is a record for the dreamers, a trippy cosmic aural experience of largely instrumental music, recorded analogue and crafted together at his Nygrenda Vev & Dur studio in rural Norway. Arne is also joined on Oneiric by long term collaborators Alexis Taylor (Hot Chip) and Gary Olson (Ladybug Transistor) for two vocal tracks on the record.
Regarding the album Arne says, “The word Oneiric refers to things connected with dreams. I've drawn inspiration from the strange, surreal, humorous, imaginative, and vividly colourful experiences that often unfold within them.
“I have played with genres, sounds and timbres and put together pieces of music that I think could be the soundtrack to a dream sequence. I love the way a dream can be so bizarre and yet still feel so natural, and I can relate to that otherworldliness in the way I compose and put together musical pieces. Some songs have a clear structure, some have not, some are minimalist, some are maximalist, some are wistful and some are joyful, but I think all of them are quite colourful and playful.
“I’ve taken inspiration from many different music eras and many different corners of the world, from quirky British music to French dream pop to the 60s New York tape music scene to ambient and psychedelic music. The music is created hands on using old analogue gear such as tape machines, dictaphones, tape echoes and more to colour the music and give the sounds the right textures. This way I feel connected to the music I make.”
The first taste of Oneiric comes with lead single ‘Bird’s-Eye View’, a soaring song which dances on a smooth bassline as mellotron shimmers alongside warped synths simulating birdsong.
The sounds quickly dig deeper into the curious dreamscape of Oneiric, such as found on ‘Retire The Fool’ with Alexis Taylor on vocals, a minimalist echoing track which plays both welcomingly familiar yet cautiously eerie with a drone of weightless experimentation.
Meanwhile ‘Hypermnesia’ expands further with bold brass exuding optimism in a story built around the words from a lost tape where an old man talks about his first memory as a four-year-old, where he suddenly became aware of that he was a human being and that he was living in a wonderful world. This amazement continues into ‘Lingering Souls’, a jubilant iridescent slice of 60s inspired pop featuring Gary Olson on vocals.
An expansive and mesmeric experience across its 12 tracks, Oneiric is wrapped up fittingly with ‘Lucid Dreaming’ a vivid piece drenched in orchestral wonderment, warped synths and a dramatic drum crescendo closing the bold creative experimentation in Oneiric with an awaking of rich clarity.
On Oneiric Arne Kjelsrud Mathisen play organs, synthesizers, piano, mellotron, drums, drum machines, percussion, field recordings, trombone, tuba, electric guitars, vocals, vocoder and tape treatment. He is joined in parts by collaborators including Alexis Taylor, Gary Olson, Kristine Tjøgersen, Lars Løberg Tofte, Marin Stallemo Bakke, Sigurd Thomassen, Silje Høgevold, Terry Edwards and Øystein Braut.
In a career which spans two decades, Arne Kjelsrud Mathisen has cemented himself as a vital name from the Norwegian music scene. He has been a part of important Norwegian bands such as I Was A King and Heroes & Zeros, while more recently has been releasing records in the bi-continental jangle band The No Ones with Peter Buck and Scott McCaughey from R.E.M. and Minus 5 along with I Was A King frontman Frode Strømstad.
Launching his Rural Tapes project with the self-titled record in 2021, he solidified his status further for his inventive and progressive music. Rural Tapes is consistently met by a wealth of high praise as seen across the further studio albums including Inner Space Music (2022) and Contact (2024). He now heightens senses further with Oneiric, an album set to prove a vital record in his catalogue.
Oneiric will be available on vinyl LP, CD, and digital/streaming on October 17th 2025 via Clay Pipe Music.
