ERLAND DAHLEN
Rolling Bomber
HUBROCD2512/HUBROLP3512
Hubro 2012
07 Tracks. 35mins44secs

Amazon UK: CD | LP | DLD US: CD | LP | DLD iTunes: DLD Spotify: STRM

Having worked with an impressive list of artists across a wide array of genres (from Arve Henriksen, Eivind Aarset or Nils Petter Molvær to Hanne Hukkelberg, Mike Patton or as part of rock band Madrugada), Norwegian drummer and percussionist Erland Dahlen steps out in the limelights with his first album as a solo artist. Released on the decidedly inspired Hubro Music, Rolling Bomber was recorded early last year in Oslo during three sessions with long term collaborators Jens Petter Nilsen and Hallvard Wennersberg Hagen, who both regularly officiate as Xploding Plastix, and was mastered by former Deathprod mastermind Helge Sten.

The album takes its name from Dahlen’s main instrument here, a vintage Slingerland Rolling Bomber drum kit dating back from World War II Continue Reading »

Thomas Strønen is undoubtedly one of the most talented drummers of his generation. A member of Food, Humcrush, Meadow, Monsters & Puppets and many more, his very diverse, yet highly recognisable style puts him is at the heart of these projects. With new albums from Monsters & Puppets, Humcrush and The Living Room, Thomas takes some time off his incredibly busy schedule to talk to themilkfactory about how he started playing drums, his long-standing collaboration with Iain Ballamy as Food, his relationship with Maria Kannegaard and how it led to Monsters & Puppets, and what his next solo project may be. Continue Reading »

JENNY HVAL
Viscera
RCD2108
Rune Grammofon 2011
10 Tracks. 54mins26secs

Amazon UK: CD | LP | DLD US: CD | LP | DLD Boomkat: CD | LP iTunes: DLD

The body, this holiest of temples, is the subject of Jenny Hval’s new album, but it is its most visceral functions and primal organs that are the focus of her attention. Blood, piss, spit, sweat, erections, clitoris, eye sockets, tongues, finger nails, pores and skin, senses are all exposed in the cold light of day, used and abused in every song. Yet, if nothing is too crude or taboo for the Norwegian songstress, Viscera is actually a poetic journey like no other, carried by Hval’s deeply moving voice, part Liz Fraser, part Björk, part Mari Boine, yet totally and utterly unique.

Hval made a name for herself as Rockettothesky, under which banner she released two albums, To Sing You Apple Trees (2006) and Medusa (2008). Viscera is quite a different offering. Continue Reading »

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Twenty Centuries Of Stony Sleep
RCD2100
Rune Grammofon 2010
13 Tracks. 75mins24secs

Amazon UK: CD US: CD | LP Norman Records: CD | LP

Twelve years on from Supersilent’s monumental triple CD debut release, Rune Grammofon have reached a new milestone with this, their hundredth release. Twenty Centuries Of Stony Sleep collects thirteen tracks, twelve of which exclusive to this album, from quite a wide cross-section of the label’s roster, ranging from long-serving acts (Alog, Scorch Trio, Supersilent, Ultralyd, In The Country, Deathprod or Maja Ratjke) to more recent joiners (Espen Eriksen Trio, Puma, Bushman’s Revenge or new signing Jenny Hval).

There are few record labels who have developed such a strong and consistent aesthetic as Rune Grammofon, not only visually, there is not one release which hasn’t had the Kim Hiorthøy treatment, but also through its catalogue, which, in the case of Rune Grammofon stretches from abstract jazz, traditional Scandinavian folk to ambient electronic music and from ethereal pop to avant-garde classical to heavy metal, always with a strong exploratory angle at its core. Continue Reading »

SUPERSILENT
10
RCD2102
Rune Grammofon 2010
12 Tracks. 41mins46secs

Amazon UK: CD | LP US: CD | LP Norman Records: CD | LP

For the last couple of years, Supersilent have been operating as a trio following the departure of drummer Jale Vespestad, but, far from hindering their progress, this seems to have opened an entirely new field of experimentation for Arve Henriksen, Ståle Storløkken and Helge Sten. Following the beautifully introspective 9, released just over a year ago in Scandinavia, 10 denotes another foray into deeply atmospheric grounds, but unlike its predecessor, for which the trio used only sounds sourced from Hammond organs, this latest offering is surprisingly acoustic and delicate. Storløkken on piano for the first time in Supersilent, and Henriksen on trumpet dominate this album, with Sten weaving discreet electronic textures in the backdrop. Most of the tracks were recorded early last year shortly after Vespestad announced he was leaving the formation, with additional recordings sourced from the fructuous 2005 sessions for 8, the remainder of which are due to be released on vinyl as 11 imminently.

This move toward predominantly acoustic instrumentation shows Supersilent under radically different lights to anything they have served up until now. Continue Reading »

ON
Something That Has Form And Something That Does Not
TYPE062
Type Recordings 2010
05 Tracks. 48mins23secs

Amazon UK: CD | LP | DLD US: CD | DLD Boomkat: CD | LP | DLD iTunes: DLD

The idea behind On is quite unique. Originally the project of French experimental pianist and guitarist Sylvain Chauveau and Chicago-based drummer and percussionist Steven Hess, On has always involved a third component, but instead of being a permanent feature as such, the pair have chosen to put their documented improvisations in the hands of another artist and give him carte blanche to create an album with this material. In the past, this duty has fallen onto the laps of Helge Sten, known amongst others as one third of Supersilent and for his production work for artists as diverse as Susanna And The Magical Orchestra, Motorpsycho, Arve Henriksen or Nils Petter Molvær. On Your Naked Ghost Comes Back At Night, Sten processed the duo’s original recordings into chilling atmospheric soundscapes close to his output as Deathprod. For their second effort, the pair enrolled the services of French musician Pierre-Yves Macé, who created extremely sparse ambient electro-acoustic pieces set on the outer boundaries of musique concrète.  For this latest escapade, Chauveau and Hess recorded a new set of improvisations in Hess’s Chicago studio and called upon Austrian guitarist and laptop experimentalist Christian Fennesz to rework them into the pieces presented on this third album. Continue Reading »

ON
Your Naked Ghost Comes Back At Night
TYPE050
Type Recordings 2009
07 Tracks. 63mins26secs

CD: Amazon UK | Boomkat | Download: Amazon UK | Boomkat

On is a project like no other. The brainchild of French composer Sylvain Chauveau and American percussionist Steven Hess, best known as one third of Chicago-based electro-acoustic outfit Haptic, On started six years ago when the pair met and recorded a session together, with Chauveau on prepared guitars and Hess on percussions. The recordings were then put in the hands of Norwegian ambient artist Helge Sten, who was then officiating as Deathprod and is, still, amongst others, a member of experimental jazz outfit Supersilent, and French composer Pierre-Yves Macé who each worked on a number of tracks, modelling them to their own sound world. The Sten tracks were collected on Your Naked Ghost Comes Back At Night and originally released in 2004 on Les Disques Du Soleil Et De L’Acier, and the ones processed by Macé were released on the album Second Souffle on Brocoli in 2007. Five years on from its original release, Type Recordings are now reissuing the Helge Sten collaboration. Continue Reading »

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Money Will Ruin Everything: The Second Edition
RCD2072
Rune Grammofon 2009
25 Tracks. 152mins42secs

Buy: CD

‘It’s hard work to sell Rune CD outside of a small group of freaks’. To celebrate its first five years of activity, Norwegian label Rune Grammofon issued Money Will Ruin Everything, a beautiful limited collection documenting the label’s first few years spent charting the outer reaches of the music industry, spread over two CDs and presented with a book designed by Kim Hiorthøy. Fast forward five years and a few months, and it is time for label owner Rune Kristoffersen to look back once again and take stock of one of the most eclectic and forward-thinking catalogue around. And once again, Kim Hiorthøy, who is still single-handedly responsible for the visual identity of the label, including its occasional advertising, has designed a beautiful artefact, which collects not only the two CDs of this second edition of Money Will Ruin Everything, introduced by Geoff Travis and Robert Fricke, but also essays by Wire collaborator Rob Young and design consultant Adrian Shaughnessy, photographs and artwork reproductions. Continue Reading »

M.B. + E.D.A.
Regolelettroniche
KARU8
Baskaru 2008
04 Tracks. 47mins24secs

Born in 1955, Maurizio Bianchi is a long-standing member of the Italian experimental music scene. He debuted in 1979, and, until 1984, he released a considerable amount of work, but then withdrew from the music business completely as he entered a deeply religious and spiritual part of his life. He came out of retirement in 1997 and has since resumed a very productive work pace, with a mix of new releases and re-issues being made available. Twenty years Bianchi’s junior, Emanuela De Angelis first emerged as lead singer and guitarist with noise formation Joyce Whore Not in the early nineties and later founded Mou, Lips!, an experimental electronic project, with Andrea Gabriele, and has been working as a solo artist for over four years.

For their first collaboration, Bianchi and De Angelis create long and expensive drone-like forms, developed over the four tracks and nearly fifty minutes of Regolelettroniche, which vaguely translates into ‘electronic rules’, and which informs the record and sets its the boundaries. Continue Reading »

SUSANNA AND THE MAGICAL ORCHESTRA
Melody Mountain
RCD2057
Rune Grammofon 2006
10 Tracks. 42mins35secs

Two years on from their wonderful debut, List Of Lights And Buoys, Susanna Wallumrød and Morten Qvenild return with this sophomore effort, once again produced by Deathprod. While their debut featured mostly tracks written by themselves, with the exception of the two opening tracks, Leonard Bernstein’s Who Am I and Dolly Parton’s Jolene, Melody Mountain sees the pair applying their delicately textured sound onto a variety of classic songs taken from the repertoires or artists as far apart as Joy Division, Leonard Cohen, Prince, AC/DC, Scott Walker or Fairport Convention to name but a few. Continue Reading »