Staggered Stasis
2004 release ** "Over the last two decades, Ellen Fullman has been perfecting her Long String Instrument. This unique instrument of her own design is some 80 feet in length and played by literally walking through it. The resulting sounds are beautiful gliding tones with a rich harmonic content. The CD presents two works from her time in Austin, Texas in the late 1980's which beautifully display a sound you can get inside of. These long tracks envelope you in their cascading overtones. Even thoug…
Noe’s Lullaby
“Noe’s Lullaby is a mysterious recording in several senses of the word. Portuguese composer David Maranha has chosen to be obscure regarding instrumentation, listing the performers (a septet) but not what they’re using to produce the sounds. From the aural evidence and what one can discern from past projects of his, it appears that such devices as stroked metal strings, wine glasses, harmoniums, guitars, and percussion (all with perhaps some electronic modulation) are among them. The music itsel…
Drykkjuvisur Ohljodanna
In scandinavia, it's not uncommon to hear of someone's mother, grandfather, uncle, or plumber who drank him-or-herself to death at an early age; and the swedish drone artist bj nilsen has felt the alcoholic pangs which may foreshadow his own demise. in recent years, nilsen has turned to his icelandic neighbors Sigtryggur Berg sigmarsson and Helgi Thorsson (collectively known as stilluppsteypa) in existential sympathy over the problems of their collective lust for alcohol. drykkjuvisur ohljodanna…
Vikinga Brennivin
Brennivin is an Icelandic liquor vulcanized from the humble potato and flavored with cumin, although you’d be hard pressed to taste much beyond the astringent burn that it leaves in your mouth. Bottled in matte black glass and stamped with ominously simple labels, brennivin appears less like something to imbibe and more like poison; and in that creeping slow death kind of way, it is. For the Icelandic electro-absurdist outfit Stilluppsteypa, brennivin has soaked into every fiber of their being; …