Didymoi Dreams, Westerhus’s 2013 collaboration with vocalist Sidsel Endresen was as uncompromising and forbidding as Norwegian jazz gets. This solo breakthrough is both more accessible and extreme, a psychological assault course which physically punishes then rewards the ears. Westerhus’s English-language vocals have high, choral delicacy similar to the current surfeit of bleating British singer-songwriters, especially Mercury Prize-winner James Blake, whose electronic music intrigues more than his voice. But Westerhus casts himself adrift from such mainstream experiments, heading for the ‘Here Be Monsters’ depths. ‘Kings Never Sleep’ starts with familiar plaintiveness, but the treated, processed guitar in which Westerhus is a virtuoso counters with buzzing oscillations which hit an ear-needling pitch. ‘Sinking Ships’ sonar bleeps are followed by long, harsh chords hoving into view like a shark’s shadow in the water, moving with ponderous, deep-sea slowness. Sudden surges in volume and distortions of scale have the logic of nightmare, one seemingly set in an immersion tank’s floating claustrophobia. ‘Amputation’ – a collage of drills, insectile chittering, what sounds like the battering of an ogre’s metal castle door and distant detonations, suiting the soundtrack of some industrial sci-fi dystopia – is the climactic moment of catharsis, the music caught between sepulchral church salvation and the factory meat-grinder. ‘Infectious Decay’ follows with acceptance and defeat in the relationship which, it becomes clear, is being sent to the grave here. After drum-cracks which sound like rifle-shots to the head in a mass mercy killing, folk melodies and synth- pop brightness surprisingly recall Blur, as the sun finally rises on a new day. On the closing ‘Amputation Part II’, though, Westerhus’s electric guitar has its own nervous breakdown, one more scar as love is terminated. Amputation finds a new, convincing balance between austere avant-garde dissonance and the emotional confession of a classic break-up album by pushing both to extremes. It’s Blood On The Fjords, and more.