With his debut, self-titled,
album, released over two years ago, Upland investigated
an interesting range of intricate electronic soundscapes
wrapped around sparse melodies, depicting stunning rarefied
abstract territories. Two years on, Oslo-based Knut
Ruud returns with an equally short and complex record.
Evolving in the vicinity of post-industrial techno Autechre
or Freeform, Ruud
assembles miniature mechanical structures with precision,
and then purposely interferes with his creations by
throwing spanners in the works just to see what it does.
Simple, yet effective, in his case. Very much like the
aforementioned Autechre,
Upland achieves abstraction not as a mean, but as a
step to help him explore further. And if his first album
could at times appear rather desolate and bare, Obliterated
is, on the contrary, like a constant luxuriant explosion
of sonic particles, forming a very coherent whole by
the time the listener reaches its end. Keeping things
to a minimum, Ruud manages to go just over the half
hour mark, yet feels his defined space with dense moments,
rising to the challenge time and time again. Space,
filled or intentionally left empty, is the substance
at the heart of these fragile assemblages. A recurring
theme in his work, it serves the purpose of giving extra
dimensional structure to his compositions, bringing
them together under the same stylistic umbrella, yet
allowing for something totally unique to happen with
each new piece. Neither boring nor predictable, Obliterated
is pure delight.
Unlike most Nordic musicians, Ruud doesn’t rely
so much on his natural environment to provide him with
either sounds or atmospheres. His sonic explorations
have more to do with the obsessive effervescence of
an agitated mind in search of introverted emotions than
cinematic landscapes and exhibited passions. Ruud digs
deep into his subconscious to extract the most human
of music. Because the music of Upland is, above all,
truly human, and the voices caught up amidst the relentless
rhythmic machinery of Chi remind that, behind
all this sonic subterfuges, pulling the strings, is
Knut Ruud.
Obliterated consolidates the sonic ground Knut
Ruud began to establish with his first album. This new
offering is, reassuringly, more of a convincing progression
than a change of direction. In fact, it feels as if
Ruud is more determined to get deep into the heart of
the complex structures he builds, acting with more maturity.
4.3/5 |
