Artist : Elegi
Title : Varde
Genre : Ambient
Year : 2009
Date : 02/2009
Bitrate : VBR kbps
Tracks : 12
Label : Miasmah Recordings MIACD009
Source : CDDA
Encoder : Lame 3.97
Length : 53:52 min
Size : 68,5 MB
Tracklist:
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01.varde 02:17
02.skrugard 06:38
03.svanesang 06:15
04.arvesolv 02:38
05.drivis 05:23
06.uranienborg 05:07
07.fandens bre 04:31
08.skyggespill 02:05
09.angekok 04:25
10.rak 06:42
11.sovnens kvelertak 03:34
12.den store hvite stillhet 04:17
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53:52 min
Tommy Jansen returns with an album themed around
ill-fated Arctic exploration, making explicit
reference to the demise of Captain Scott's
expedition in the liner notes. The title, Varde,
translates as 'cairn' - a pile of stones, which
traditionally carries associations pertaining to
the marking of graves, and appropriately the
whole album sounds like a chilling and
uncompromising electroacoustic requiem, evoking
a sense of frosty grimness and a funereal feel
that's so in-keeping with the Miasmah sound.
The opening piece (the album's title track)
ominously merges the sounds of shovelling with a
stormy wax cylinder crackle - it's as if
Deathprod were scoring a gravesside sound
installation, but for all the implied doom and
gloom, there's not a moment of it goes by that
isn't eerily beautiful. Following directly on,
the bass-heavy bowed strings of 'Skrugard'
demonstrate Jansen's ear for conventional
composition setting shivering minor-key
harmonics within a blizzard of dark ambient
electronic gestures.
Cutting through the murk, 'Arvesloev' introduces
some stuttering dulcimer-like string plucks
while crisp, arrhythmic percussive sounds lend a
sense of nervousness. The track starts out with
a quiet whirring sound, like the motorised rasp
of an old film projector, only further
compounding the cinematic feel that permeates
the album.
After a sequence of deeply textured low-end
drone tracts (among them 'Fandens Bre' and
'Drivis') the eloquent neo-classical strains of
'Raak' arrive as a particularly luminous
departure, shifting the emphasis from sub-heavy
sludge to windswept violins in a seamless and
emphatically melodic fashion. On 'Soevnens
Kvelertak', Jansen combines loose exchanges
between piano and strings (not to mention the
odd wolf howl) with an old dusty vinyl recording
of some romantic, vaguely creepy orchestral
tune, all wafting around in ghostly fashion.
Varde is a magnificent piece of work,
transcending the conventions of the death
ambient genre thanks to an extremely refined
compositional approach - as haunting Nordic
gloom goes this is right up there with the best
output of Miasmah boss Svarte Greiner.
http://www.miasmah.com/