The electronica/downtempo project “Inuuro” was started in 2012 by Oskar Braten, Alexander Ree & Ludvig Anestad in Stavanger, Norway . Their latest album “Pacific Northwest” represents a 13-year journey together as friends and producers. It’s an album inspired by the incredible nature of the northwestern American continent, and is also an album that represents the sonic soundscape of “Inuuro” as they want you to experience it.
I caught up with Alexander Sævild Ree from the group to talk about their early musical influences, how they started playing music and the making of “Pacific Northwest” which you can check out here.
CMM-What was the first music that really made an impact on you all as kids and what artist or band did you enjoy the most?
Alex-Impossible question as there are so many, but we can easily say Tycho as the artist that has had the most influence on us in the last decade. As a group we find inspiration from artists like Teen Daze, Mura Masa, Solar Fields, Blue Sky Black Death and so many more. Some early music memories from the group listed randomly, but Ludvig has A-ha, “Take on me” as a vivid memory, and was later deeply inspired by Avicii. Oskar remembers vivid LAN-parties with “Basshunter” thumping on the speakers, and he was also later inspired by Solar Fields (especially after the release of “Mirrors Edge”.
CMM-When did you all first start playing music and creating your own songs?
Alex-We started to hang out and play music together in high-school in Norway (around 2012). Oskar in the group was really into it at the time, and me (Alex) and Ludvig kinda started to play around with it ourselves. Ludvig was also in a band before he moved more over to producing. We were quite shit at the start, but we didn’t care. It was all fun and games. Eventually, we started to get better, and over time we kinda managed to create the sounds we imagined in our head, so that was pretty epic. We never lost that playfulness in our music, and Inuuro is a way for us to keep connected. The project will go on as long as we want to, and we think we have many good years to come.
CMM-The band recently released an amazing new album titled “Pacific Northwest”. What was the writing and recording process like and what is it ablout the Pacific Northwest area that you all love so much? Any particular gear or instruments the band used during the recording sessions that helped inspire you?
Alex-The idea started to materialize in 2023, and it was around the same time we started to play around with the single “Pacific Northwest”. We all live in different cities these days, so we often send tracks back and forth as we work on them. The song changed vibes quite often before we landed on something we all liked, and afterwards we never looked back. We started to imagine a whole visual idea for the album, and the audiovisual side of “inuuro” have always been very important for us. We try to narrate a visual story in this album, and we hope people find some enjoyment in our storytelling.
We all derive from the same coastal town in Norway called “Stavanger”. We were surrounded by mountains from a young age, and we have always been drawn to nature when we look for inspiration. Previous work from us have included tracks like “Redwood” and “Mount San Jacinto”, places some of us in the group have visited, and these places really leave a mark on you. There is something green and magical about the Pacific Northwest that is very difficult to narrate, but the inspiration kind of mirrors some of the areas we have in Norway (but we would say that the grandeur of the northwestern American continent is hard to match here back home). We hope people get inspired by our tracks, and maybe they want to visit the area themselves? That would be truly amazing. Maybe we can locate some local bloggers that want to use our music to visualize some of the scenery? That would be truly awesome, so feel free to reach out to us.
CMM-If the band could do a score for any film director who would it be and what would the film be about?
Alex-We would love to score something for Dennis Villeneuve, with Jon Favreau as the executive producer. That could be truly epic. Something deeply rooted in philosophy (inspired by the early “Star Trek” days) with that modern sci-fi touch maybe?
CMM-What do you have coming up next? Any new recordings or shows?
Alex-We have a crazy backlog, so we are trying to find a good plan for the coming years (+). We hope to release a new single before the summer, and we expect/hope new releases monthly from August-February. Maybe a new album in late 2026? We also have some exiting side projects going for YouTube, so we hope to release some more compilations in the coming months.
