Like so many, the Norwegian bassist Sigurd Hole — a nimble-fingered player and a composer of sonically expansive, thoughtfully paced music — has been overcome with dismay at the fast-worsening climate crisis. Like too few, in the face of it he’s sought out wisdom and theory from non-industrialized societies. “The Presentation Dance” comes from his newest album, “Roraima,” which he made after reading “The Falling Sky,” a book by the Yanomami shaman and mouthpiece Davi Kopenawa. The rain-like pitter-patter of a marimba interacts with a small corps of strings, playing fluid and intertwined melodies that sometimes fall into a pizzicato repartee with the marimba’s mallets. GIOVANNI RUSSONELLO

Norwegian bassist inspired by the sound of arctic nature

Avant-garde bassist Sigurd Hole recorded Lys/ Mørke on the island of Sørværet in the Norwegian arctic.

If it was recorded anywhere else, it would have sounded completely different, such is its connection to theground from which it grew. Using only his double bass, Hole has made improvised acoustic sound-art that is intimately inspired by the sounds, colours and landscape of Sørværet. By recording out in the open, the ambient sounds of birds, rain and wind in grass become integral to the music and meaning of the album.

Dividing the double album into light (Lys) and darkness (Mørke), Hole explores the ever-important themes of ecology and the philosophical unity of humanity and nature through the language of sound. He uses the whistling sounds of the bass’ harmonics to form mimesis and mimicry, stirring reminiscences of throat singing and Sámi joik alongside more traditional jazz and Scandinavian folk. The atmosphere here is sparse and calm, if occasionally unsettling in its vastness. Even moments of musical turmoil are appropriate and magical elements of the sonic ecosystem. The result is so personal and introspective as to feel perhaps a little intrusive, but it serves perfectly to allow our ears to visit the cold scenery of Sørværet and to hear Hole’s soul. JIM HICKSON

Sigurd Hole, an acclaimed accompanist for Tord Gustavsen and others, ventured to the Norwegian island Fleinvær to record his latest album. There, he tapped the area’s atmospheric inspirations, allowing ambient sounds to make cameo appearances on the solo bass recording, emphasizing the importance of nature and ecology in his conceptual mix.

An especially rich spectrum of harmonics, overtones, percussive effects and arco colorations make up the essential vocabulary on the contemplative double-disc Lys/Mørke, a follow-up to 2018’s solo Elvesang. But what pushes Hole’s bass work into the realm of the sublime are his refined sense of improvisation and painterly subtlety. From the Lys disc, a folkish pulse graces “Yngeldans,” while “Havsang” suggests a low, loamy elegy.

The Mørke disc opens with the timbral wash of arco sweeps on “Bølge” and closes with a resolving sigh of the introspective, melodic “Epilog.” In between come “Mørke,” with its pizzicato gravitas and the primal rhythmic vigor of “Refleksjon.” As an integrated whole, deserving a listen from beginning to end, the recording transports listeners to the realms of Norwegian wilderness and the wilderness of double bass, no additives necessary. JOSEF WOODARD