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Our album of the week (12th November 2010)
...according to our Ant on Fri 11 Feb, 2011.
My goodness! Followers of the Sonic Pieces label are in for a real treat with this, its ninth release, coming at you from Mister Erik K Skodvin and 'Flare' is an absolute beauty. Erik has kept himself busy over the years recording with Deaf Center, Miasmah Quartet, Norwegian Noise Orchestra; under the aliases Xhale, Solitare Albread and most recently as Svarte Greiner. In terms of the labels usual aesthetic this is a step in a slightly darker direction. Opener 'Etching An Entrance' sets the scene with black modern classical sounds and slightly doomy undercurrents all within a luxurious widescreen vista. 'Failing Eyes is a stripped bare to the bones acoustic guitar track that has an intriguing loner feel while 'Neither Dust' has an almost seedy vibe to it, whilst maintaining creepy momentum. Each track feels like a step into the unknown and you're never quite sure what will lurk behind the next shadowy corner. Erik's musicianship is of the highest calibre; whether he's playing strings or unsettling electronics. The packaging is a super high quality in-house embossed book sleeve with elegant gold print. I think this is quite probably my personal favourite release on Sonic pieces and so comes highly recommended. Second edition of 450 copies.
'Flare' might be the debut album under his own name, but it is far from Erik K Skodvin's first musical endeavour. As a member of Deaf Center (along with Otto Totland) he built up a swift following of fans devoted to his precise attention to detail and knack for creating the most unassumingly beautiful tracks of gloomy soundscapes. This clearly wasn't enough though, as Skodvin dragged his sound into darker pastures, tying to it the Svarte Greiner moniker and allowing his collection of haunted sounds to cough, splutter and groan mercilessly. 'Flare' marks a new beginning for Skodvin, and the electronic processes that have come to define his sound are now all but gone. Untreated acoustic sounds and the blankly terrifying sounds of bare rooms form the backbone of this new approach, and while 'Flare' still bears all the fingerprints of Skodvin's patented technique, it also sounds fresh and different. At times, as the album slowly reveals itself, one could be forgiven for thinking they had discovered a chewed up cassette of Finnish forest folk- dark and grainy but also live, as if a dark ritual had been captured somewhere remote in the morning fog. Through his selection of instruments, which includes piano, guitar, violin and occasionally voice, Skodvin runs through the recordings with a ghost-like touch. There is the sense that these vignettes already existed, Skodvin merely dusted them off and lit the blue touchpaper.
'Flare' might not have the noise, grit and dense distortion of its predecessors, but what it lacks in bone shaking volume, it makes up for in subtlety and sheer mood. Through careful use of instruments and Skodvin's unmistakable ear for silence, he has created a record as tense and unforgiving as anything in his catalogue. It just sounds a little different, and that is never a bad thing. Listen with caution…
01. Etching an entrance
02. Matiné
03. Pitch dark
04. Failing eyes
05. Neither dust
06. Graves
07. Escaping the day
08. Stuck in burning dreams
09. Vanished
10. Caught in flickering lights
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Norman Records,
Unit 20, Croydon House,
Croydon Street,
Leeds,
LS11 9RT, UK.
Tel/fax: (+44) 0113 245 4399
Email: phil@normanrecords.com
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