Glacial Movements

L'estetica agita tra i solchi delle sei dilatate ed eleganti incisioni che compongono il nuovo progetto di Netherworld, alias di Alessandro Tedeschi, fondatore della Glacial Movements, è volutamente assai rarefatta e ben indirizzata nel filone inesauribile che dall'ambient fino alla drone music, nelle sue diramazioni più o meno isolazioniste vede ancora un certo fermento produttivo ed inedite attenzioni da parte del pubblico anche non specialistico che pian piano sembra sempre più metabolizzare l'elettronica e le avanguardie. Sonorità che proprio in questo caso al di là d'ogni posizionamento stilistico sono efficaci nell'esibire stutture coerenti e qualità anche non concettuale, nella musicalità infine diretta, essenziale ma anche evocativa di luoghi solo immaginati e cristalline, artiche (un paradosso senz'altro per un autore italiano) atmosfere.

The aesthetic in the six dilated and elegant tracks forming this new project by Netherworld, the alias of Alessandro Tedeschi, founder of Glacial Movements, is purposefully very rarefied and well-inserted in the inexhaustible river going from ambient to drone music which, in its more or less isolationist branches, still enjoys a remarkable productive activity and consideration by people who don't normally listen to this kind of music and are more and more metabolizing avant-garde electronica. In this release, the sounds, aside from their stylistic label, show coherent structures and non-conceptual qualities as well, evoking imaginary places and crystal-like and arctic (a paradox for an Italian author) atmospheres.

Aurelio Cianciotta - NEURAL

After the well received and highly valued "Cryosphere" sampler, the Italian Glacial Movements are back with a second release. Netherworld's 'Morketid' is pressed on CD instead of the CD-r media that was used for the sampler. A good choice, because that one was way too beautiful to be "just" on CD-r.

"MORKETID is a Norwegian term that indicates a certain period in the year when the Arctic winter cold encases everything and the sun doesn’t rise over the horizon. It’s a cold and dark period that distinguishes regions and people living in the Artic." (press info)

This very well concept was chosen as guidance in the creation of this CD and the feeling these recordings give you comes definitely close to the emptiness of the North. The result is an hour worth of ambience, divided into 6 tracks.

Lots of pads and stretched sounds create this empty feeling, while the subtle use of repetitive rhythm loops create an interpretation of daily routines. The presence of the routines doesn't change, though the content does. The vastness of the glacial grounds and Northern makes you interpret everything different.

Muffled and manipulated voices implicate the feeling you're not alone, but it's huge out there. You don't see anyone, but you feel there is ... Cabin fever ...

The one remark that I had towards Netherworld's track on "Cryosphere" I withdraw. The production and sounds are very well mixed and produced. This album has the clearness of sounds one would expect with conceptually ice-based works.

Ah, glacial and desolated lands of the Arctic…one has, on a certain number of occasions, ‘’sung’’ and ‘’celebrated’’ your ‘’majestuosity’’, but you will keep striking and enchanting the imagination...and this fascination for you will probably remain forever. And rightly so! The BIOSPHERE and SLEEP RESEARCH FACILITY projects, among others, became your ‘’minstrels’’ and now NETHERWORLD, a rising star from Italy and flagbearer of the GLACIAL MOVEMENTS label, on which is released MØRKETID, a deep-ambient jewel. This disc is released at the same time as the cd KALL: THE ABYSS WHERE DREAMS FALL released here, on our MONDES ELLIPTIQUES imprint. While one recognizes quite easily NETHERWORLD and his tactics in composition and stratification (in the present context, term which designates the art of putting, one over another, layers of ice!), from one disc to another, KALL and MØRKETID are like two twins having quite opposite characters; while KALL proposed the listener to lose himself in a deliciously and insidiously dark and introspective sound funnel, MØRKETID can be thought of as a more aerial entity; MØRKETID, it is a glacial, slow and implacable wind, a bit like the one blowing on those remote landscapes at the heart of arctic winter. The sound motifs are insistent, like this cold which clasps us, and haunt us for days. These subtle repetitions bearing a peculiar musicality, threnodies of an imaginary Nordic folklore, relentlessly bring us back to the sense of eternity which permeates every portion of this glacial immensity, bound to an infinite renewal, in a slow and patient way. Fragmented voices occasionally interpellate us, but without insisting too much…they are simply…there----Strongly recommended!

Miejsca zapomniane przez ludzi, śnieżne krajobrazy, pola kwiatów okrytych wiecznym lodem, kry lodowe zderzające się ze sobą, świt nad cichymi białymi dolinami we wspaniałych północnych lądach, zagubiony podróżnik pośród antarktycznych terenów szukający drogi do domu, zimna i cicha noc nad arktyczną doliną, stworzenia szukające schronienia przed mrozem.... Glacial Movements to wytwórnia, która zrodziła się by opisać te wszystkie rzeczy / ukazać obrazy poprzez dźwięk.

"MØrketid' - (z języka Norweskiego) - oznacza konkretny okres w roku, w którym arktyczna zima okrywa wszystko, a słońce nie wstaje nad horyzontem. To zimny i ciemny czas, który ukierunkowuje regiony i ludzi żyjących na Arktyce.

Taką informację możemy znaleźć na oficjalnej stronie projektu i wytwórni Glacial Movements, której przewodnikiem jest twórca tego materiału.
Niewątpliwie jest to materiał dość specyficzny i niekoniecznie łatwy w odbiorze. Jest to niemalże godzina muzyki bardzo spokojnej, stonowanej, wyciszonej, w której pozornie nic się nie dzieje. Jednakże dla wszystkich fanów gatunku ambient zwłaszcza w takim "chłodnym" wydaniu - perełka obowiązkowa. Materiał jest wyśmienicie zrównoważony. Płyta wprowadza odbiorcę w bardzo osobliwy nastrój. Przychodzą na myśl odległe pustkowia i totalna izolacja od rzeczywistości, cywilizacji, miast i wszechobecnie otaczającego nas zgiełku. Autor bardzo pomału, dyskretnie, lecz nieprzerwanie zachęca w kolejnych minutach do pozostawienia wszystkiego co nas otacza, powoduje wewnętrzne wyciszenie. To płyta, która jest czymś w rodzaju muzycznego filmu. Wystarczy dać się ponieść wyobraźni, pozwolić by dźwięki stworzone przez artystę pokazały nam drogę. Jeśli tylko poświęcimy temu albumowi całą swoją uwagę, to niemalże pewnym jest, iż po ukończeniu słuchania przycisk "repeat" włączymy natychmiastowo.

I live in Minnesota where winter temps can hit -30 Celsius (-20 Fahrenheit); the days are short and the nights dark and cold. I can appreciate the environmental harshness which this recording claims to evoke (the Norwegian mørketid is a time of year when severe cold occurs and the sun never rises). While I enjoyed these sparse drone-centered soundscapes, they don’t conjure up the desired mental images for me (I prefer the more melancholic melodies of Jeff Greinke’s Winter Light for that). Just the same, Alessandro Tedeschi (aka Netherworld) has fashioned an impressive and immersive recording that moves at (its label-namesake’s) glacial pace, crafted from found sounds, sampled and shaped into warm drones, glistening textures and bell-like reverberations (with occasional rhythmic pulses and percussive booms). Snippets of barely discernible (English) dialogue introduce an element of “eavesdropping,” sparking the notion of walking along a frozen path between houses, catching fragments of conversations from behind windows lit by candlelight.

Mørketid settles into its groove on the third (title) track. Before that, the circular repetitive swirls/tones/drones of “Dreaming Arctic Expanses” and “New Horizons” with its uber-patient unfolding of fluid drones and muted booming beats, serve as a preamble to the more satisfying tracks yet to come. “Mørketid” sparkles like new-fallen snow illuminated by the crystalline brilliance of unfiltered lunar light. Undulating choral-esque tones, shimmering twinkling effects, and a subtle plodding but pleasant pulsing ooze the type of atmosphere that I think Tedeschi was aiming for (the later presence of rustling echoed noises proves a bit jarring, though, when compared to the earlier somber beauty). “Jøkul” offers a lovely mixture of dialogue fragments and ebbing and flowing washes (I’m reminded of Zero Ohms’ True Degrees of Freedom). “North Pole” opens with what sounds to me like a bass flute, with the eventual folding in of percussive effects which add three-dimensionality to the music (without disturbing the flow). “Virgin Lands” closes out the album with a repeating pattern of echoed tones accompanied by slow booming (think distant thunder) and a high-pitched tone (that, frankly, on headphones is a bit annoying).

I’m of two minds about Morketid. When Tedeschi clicks, the results are impressively evocative and draw the listener into a forlorn and sparse landscape. However I’d have preferred a tad more sensation of the beauty inherent in this environment, perhaps through some melancholic melodic elements. Taken as a whole, the album should prove a valuable addition to your collection if drone-based ambient music does it for you.

Review by Bill Binkelman - FURTHERNOISE

After spending the better part of the past couple of years of narrowing my listening down to mostly experiments in abstract sound art, minimalist soundscapes, electronica, and ambient dub Mørketid brings back a touch of nostalgia as it takes me back to one of my earliest enjoyable listening experiences in non-mainstream music - slow-moving, voluminous, lonely, icy soundscapes - a branch of what some refer to as isolationist ambient.

While some varieties of isolationist ambient delve into deep, cavernous bass resonations or dense drones textured with the crackling sound of splintered ice crystals, Mørketid draws the listener in with a blend of processed environmental samples, translucent drones, looped segments of melody and rhythms, sparkling chimes, lambent electronics, reverb-generated spaciousness, and distant, ghostly voices.
There’s a coherent theme linking the six interconnected compositions. The glacial panorama reflected in sound here is not one to dread. It’s one to stand in wonderment of, a place of extremes - the vastness, the harshness, the whiteness, the grandeur, the unforgivingness, and the solitude.

Netherworld‘s Mørketid is an excellent addition to a fairly well explored sub-genre of ambient music. Nearly an hour in duration, this is a true CD digipack release with professional graphics and artwork.

In a tradition anchored in experimental drone, ritual and dark ambient, there’s a discernible Italian strain—one of indulgent introspection, of over-exaggerated withdrawal, like a minimalist ambient musical negative of Italian’s notoriously over-florid prose (think Oöphoi, Alio Die, Tau Ceti, Opium, and the denizens of Umbra and Hic Sunt Leones). “I'm interested in capturing sounds generated from the nature’s flow. Through my music, I would like to play the quietness of silence, desolate darkness and glacial landscapes,” quoth Alessandro Tedeschi, whose Netherworld manneristically aligns itself under the flag “Isolationist Ambient." A sub-genre line born circa 1994 with the Ambient 4: Isolationism compilation, Netherworld’s conceptual update “confronts the individual with forces beyond his control, while trying to mirror the beauty of epic, barren landscapes with immeasurable dimensions.” On Mørketid (Norwegian term for their period of Arctic frost-encrustation and near-total blackout), this is translated into a collection of reduced arrangements, wherein a single chord progression or harmonic motif is extended recursively over a set periodicity. Interestingly, unlike the earlier Cryosphere, the result is far from frosty or alien, but rather suffused with a remote warmth and ambiguity of atmosphere. Meditative and virtually breathing, it falls in the wake of a post-classically drawn landscape (cf., Basinski, Marsen Jules), but not quite there, ending up a more stylized spartan Italian cousin of Guentner/Lohmann Pop Ambient crossed with Milieu’s Beyond the Sea Lies The Stars. Its soft sustains evoke the recondite and the crystalline, remaining above ground, aerated, here haunted by snatches of spectral voices, there by manipulated fragments of Arctic-sourced sounds, and then again by a slow thunk-thunk like the Pole’s heartbeat. Letting radiance peripherally filter through, Mørketid offsets a certain textural and compositional depletion against an appealing ascetic allure. Who took the ice from the isolationism? Netherworld.

Another new album for Alessandro Tedeschi in 2007 is ‘Mørketid’ released through his own Glacial Movements Records. Mørketid (if you’re curious) is a Norwegian term that indicates a certain period in the year when the Arctic winter cold encases everything and the sun doesn’t rise over the horizon. It’s a cold and dark period that distinguishes regions and people living in the Artic. The sounds on this album are actually treated field recordings mixed with various spoken samples and I’m assuming at least some synthesizers. The effect is an icy cold slow paced adventure through the arctic tundra, which frankly works nicely when its 90 plus degrees outside my window. The only thing that tends to annoy me with this album is that almost every second of this album has this sort of fading in and out high pitched metallic like sound alongside the music. Otherwise though I’m definitely impressed with this recording and will indeed be listening to it in the weeks to come.

Released simultaneously with "Kall - The Abyss Where Dreams Fall" (on Mondes Elliptiques), "Mørketid" is not the disc I expected, under many aspects. Over the last few years, Alessandro Tedeschi/Netherworld has created some of the bleakest drones around, legitimately reviving the term "isolationism" and starting to build a solid reputation with a few limited releases on Umbra and Tâalem. The name he's chosen for his own label, "Glacial Movement", was perfect to define his style. But right from its beginning, this self-released work is a surprising detour, or possibly the sign of new inputs that will be gradually absorbed in his soundscapes. To be short, the whole disc is bathed in melody, and is largely loop-based (instead of featuring vast bottomless drones). The glacial theme is still there (the liner notes explain that the title refers to "a certain period in the year when the Arctic winter cold encases everything and the sun doesn't rise over the horizon"), but the atmosphere is melancholic and peaceful rather than one of ghastly desolation. Now and then, Maurizio Bianchi in his most serene mood came to my mind, along with vague similarities with some Eno or Basinski. Short melodic fragments are looped building expanding cyclic pieces, sometimes accompanied by spoken samples (one more difference - human traces!), and occasionally clouded by darker drones and metallic rumblings, as in the title track and the final "Virgin Lands". After the initial shock, I found myself liking this album quite a bit, though being no die-hard fan of melodic ambient. I am now looking forward to seeing if Tedeschi will cultivate his more humane side as opposed to the more abstract and desperate one, or try to merge both - which could lead to awesome results.

The Glacial Movements label once more proves true to its name. The second release is a full length album by the label founder's project, Netherworld. Mørketid is an album inspired by the polar winter, the title being the Norwegian name for the period in which the sun never rises. The result, however, doesn't sound as dark as one might expect. Despite the theme (and the conceptual possibilities of the label and as seen on the Cryosphere compilation) this isn't a dark ambient album at all. Many high-frequency sounds and relaxing melodic waves make this release rather bright instead. What does remain, though, is the desolation of the vast arctic fields that inspire this kind of music.

So, as you might expect, this is ambient for those souls who share a longing for that kind of glacial landscapes, as expressed also by artists like Northaunt. And if you are one of those people, this album is definitely worth buying. In general, the sound of the album is crisp and clear, with many sounds and high noises that suggest tingling cold and vast expanses of white. Soft melodic waves fade out now and then, providing a serene backdrop to it all. This doesn't always work well, because they sometimes become too repetitive, as do the voice samples used. There are a couple of times on the album (mainly on the opening track and on "Jøkul") where I wish a new bit was used for variation. Nevertheless, the greater part of the album is very pleasant and soothing. A well placed deep beat sometimes provides some rhythm, as on the title track, which I think is one of the most well-succeeded of the album.

This is not an album that's precisely exciting, let alone unsettling; it's more for relaxation and dreaming, and letting yourself drift off to the landscapes that are described musically. And that it does well. So, this album really represents the glacial side of the label, and not so much the isolationist that is also included in the label description. I didn't find any obscure or oppressive sounds on this album. But, if you're into this specific niche of ambient and love to be taken on arctic trips, this is something you should get.

Jak już wspomniałem w recenzji "Swarm", ostatnimi czasy bardzo bliska jest mi właśnie taka odmiana ambientu jaką para się NETHERWORLD. Jaka? Wystarczy rzut oka na okładkę przedstawiającą bezkresną lodową pustynię, oraz tytuł albumu "Morketid" - pochodzące z języka norweskiego słowo oznaczające określoną porę roku kiedy wszystko pokrywa arktyczna zima, a słońce nie podnosi się ponad linię horyzontu. Jak łatwo się domyślić mamy tu do czynienia z "polarnym" ambientem. Taką muzykę do perfekcji doprowadził Geir Jenssen i jego Biosphere na płycie "Substrata". Tymczasem Włoch Alessandro Tedeschi całkiem umiejętnie podąża śladem Norwega w udany sposób kreując wizje wszechogarniającej pustki, nieskończonych połaci lodowych, braku ruchu, życia... A jednak, choć pewnie zabrzmi to maksymalnie głupio, pomimo wyzierającego z głośników arktycznego chłodu, płyta "Morketid" emanuje swoistym... ciepłem. Pomimo wcześniej wspomnianego znaczenia tytułu, nie odnajduję tu mroku czy jakichś negatywnych emocji. Album ten koi, wprowadza w pewien błogostan, uspokaja i pobudza wyobraźnię. Spokojne dźwiękowe pejzaże płyną i nieinwazyjnie wypełniają otoczenie. Czasem w oddali pojawiają się ludzkie głosy, tylko po to aby ponownie zniknąć, rozpłynąć się na horyzoncie.

Zawsze można się do czegoś przyczepić - w przypadku "Morketid" wydaje mi się, że autor trochę zbyt często używa nieco świdrujących wysokich częstotliwości. Jednakże po paru przesłuchaniach człowiek przyzwyczaja się i przestaje to specjalnie przeszkadzać. Aż dziw, że płytę o takim koncepcie udało się stworzyć artyście pochodzącemu ze słonecznych Włoch. Do odstresowania się po ciężkim dniu ostatnia propozycja NETHERWORLD jest idealna.

Stark - APOSTAZJA

Netherworld es un proyecto que nos llega desde Roma (Italia) a cargo del sello Glacial Movements Records donde este disco (limitado a 500 copias) supone su segunda producción. Morketid (que asi se titula este disco) es un término noruego que indica un cierto periodo de tiempo cuando el invierno ártico lo envuelve todo y el sol no sale sobre el horizonte. Hace mucho frio y está todo oscuro. Por consiguiente el contenido sonoro de este cd está lleno de temas (6) largos (7:28-12:47) que nos ofrecen una perfecta banda sonora para tal paisaje. Sonidos grabados en el propio escenario natural sirven de acompañamiento para frias y al mismo tiempo suaves y hipnotizantes texturas de sintetizador que rodean el cuerpo del oyente mientras un ligero soplido despierta nuestros sentidos. ¡Viaja!
(c) 2007 Manuel Lemos Muradás - A ULTIMA FRONTEIRA

Landscapes under eternal ice, colliding and collapsing icebergs, polar lights, the change between midnight sun and continuous polar night, ice drift and snowstorms: With GLACIAL MOVEMENTS a new label is born RECORDS, which makes it it's duty to spread particularly Klangbilder of these icy Gefilde. Glacial and isolationist ambient calls the Italians ALESSANDRO TEDESCHI that, and brings, as the second, with „Mørketid “an album out of its own project NETHERWORLD. After on the first publication, named „Cryosphere did not dedicate themselves to a Sampler “, with Ambient Protagonisten such as THO THEN AA, TUU, TROUM, AIDAN BAKER and OOPHOI unknown quantities the glazialen topic, continues to go TEDESCHI with „Mørketid “, completely in accordance with the label Credo, this way, by joining noise fragments, which he took up in the range of the arctic, to crystal-cool sound surfaces. The name well sixty minutes are enough for that polar journey comes from the Norwegian one and stands for that time of the yearly, if the arctic winter lets the country solidify and the sun hardly rises over the horizon; a cold, dark time for humans in the high north. NETHERWOLRD is no completely new project: Already 2004 brought TEDESCHI on the OOPHOI label UMBRA with „Eternal frost “a CDr out; further followed its Sub label PENUMBRA and, still at the beginning of the yearly after UMBRA, after TAÂLEM. To first however only the current album, finally on „more correctly “CD and in one successfully simple and coloured cool opening, returns again to the eternal ice.

This polar night does not sound itself however darkly. Coolly and crystal clear it is transparent, like pure ice and from icy light. It told by over-radiated ice landscapes, by rattling/clinking frost, freezing breath, these completely certain cold colors of the winter sky. Up and abschwellenden surfaces are partly overlaid accompanied by a bright, high frequency Sirren and in parts by such a thing as slow, dull/musty heart tones, whole, as if one, apart from the wind and the noises of the ice, hears only the own heart impact in the width. As from the distance occasionally absorbed Gesprächsfetzen resounds over the ice. These are taken partly out of documentations NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC over the arctic, others originate from noted maintenances about the north and its phenomena. However they - also, if some voices have quite the character of a documentation speaker - are hardly understandably, hardly more than echoes of the human one in the white isolation.

How does one come from sunny Italy to the eternal ice? “Into the deepness OF my essence there is A wired, dark, silent, glacial and eternal place”, tells TEDESCHI. “This imaginary place contains A sort OF parallel reality that I've named Netherworld. Netherworld of communist manifesto itself tons of ME as A child OF more faster abstract sensation that I feel instantly and I catch UP through the making OF my music. I SWITCH, SHIFT and record (with my microphones) environment's sound and sibilance; for example A gate while it's opening, or A subterranean noise OF A brook's more courier, or thus, ice's block motion, ghost's voices, gong and crystals while broken. I'm interested in catch UP sound generated from the nature's flow. Through my music, I would like tons play the quietness OF the silence, desolate darkness and glacial landscapes.”

NETHERWORLD is not however the first or only project on the Ambientsektor, which is occupied with glazialen sound worlds. Already since the 90ern the Soundtüftler THOMAS KÖNER with albums dedicates itself like „Nunatak Gongamur “, which has the unfortunate South Pole expedition of the SIR ROBERT FALCON SCOTT to topic tables the background, „to Permafrost “and „Nuuk “northern Gefilden. KÖNERs passion for the eternal ice lies after own words in the fascination for the cold weather, which slows all movements down to short before the zero point. “It' s my passion, this AREA where the cold slows down all movement,” explains KÖNER in March 1996 in a discussion with BIBA HEAD for THE WIRE (appeared in THE WIRE, issue 145): “The process OF slowing down and reaching this boron that between movement and absolute stillness is, for ME, the process OF simultaneously becoming very sharp and very unfocused, and that, for ME is like A very excellent drug.”

It becomes esoterisch: Under the name COSMIC TRIGGER brought ANDREW out McKENZIE of THE HAFLER TRIO a project of PIITU LINTUNEN and GATE AF STORVATTEN, with „polar region “into appropriate regions advanced and besides in the Booklet a quite strange history told: The allegedly over 50 million years old „support Saga ", a Saga published noted for the first time in writing in Finland verbally and 1984 delivered and around the early history of the mankind in the north, which reports obviously on nordische mythology. Names fall such as Aser and Vaner (whereby LINTUNEN and AF STORVATTEN obviously their descent from the Aser derive), and Ragnarök become a reversal of the magnetic polarity of the earth (GREG BRADEN lets greet), after which a large ice age followed. Fortunately the warm gulf stream ensured for the fact that it remained bearable in the country of the Aser and there of them „arctic culture “develop could, while the Vaner on the southern side of the ice belt lived and trained in the equatorial regions new races. This period calls the Saga Altlandis, a name, which reminds certainly only coincidentally of Atlantis, which thereby once would have been found more finite. Somehow also the so-called Ley lines have to do field lines, which interconnect allegedly prähistorische cult places and force places, with history and also presented an own Aser alphabet, whose sound values, similarly the runes, are occupied with mirror-image-ritual and probably magic meanings. Allegedly, similarly to „the support Saga ", newer archaeological finds refer to a very much earlier settlement of the northern regions, than up to then accepted. Of it one can hold now, which one wants; it concerns two long pieces in music with altogether something over sixty minutes play time, which are not particularly exciting quite esoterisch, but. Interesting read themselves however the reviews, which are printed on the back that CD. There „polar region “as „sound TRACK 21 becomes. Century “celebrated brought with Crowley in connection and as the perfect music to the stimulation of sexual energy praised (which the writer also privately already saw allegedly in various Workshops and). Much pleasure.

With „True North “undertake MATHIAS GRASSOW and AMIR BAGHIRI a winter journey in the Jotunheimen mountains, by Fjell and fjord landscapes, over the Hardanger Vidda plateau in south and the Finnmark in northeast Norway. Light, icily resounding and swinging sounds are under-stored with ethnoartigen rhythms, and in the background, rushes or rumort it rattles mysteriously. There is, attentive Hinhören presupposed to discover much: Wind noises sound, sometimes seem to water to rush, in a place become from such a thing like Wasserplat a proper rhythm, then bird voices seem to ring out, an individual night bird call. Under the steps of a Wanderers - or another… Nature? - crunches rubble, stones roll, water drips. Sometimes one believes to hear distant voices a murmuring and a Wispern. Then again howling wind over far, snow-covered surfaces. Rattles, drums and bells add a schamanisches flair, and with something fantasy one believes nearly, noises of Trollen, or something, which one could introduce oneself as such to hear. Serve the sound production, beside key boards and Synthesizern, flutes, Rainstick, bell play, sound bowls, a clay/tone flute and himalayanische Singing Bowls, in addition in Norway made nature photographs are eingesampelt. As guest artists KÅRE RÅBU, MALEK HALIME and MELANIE BAGHIRI, is as well as ANKE THE DOG involved (wherein its contribution lies, is however not clearly evident). „True North “is an album, which unfolds its facets when conscious listening. Who hears it quietly or only in the background, a good part of the many different noises goes to that and sounds lost. Then it is still quite more obligingly/pleasingly, coolly Ambient with Ethno elements, the more hidden details, which lend a completely own character to each piece, remains however hidden. And a trailer record: One of the TRACKs carries the title „one for OF Aran “, perhaps a reference to the documentary film of the same name by ROBERT FLAHERTY from the year 1934, one of the first ethnographischen documentary films.

On a lot stuff was made in the meantime music - and since TERJE ISUNGSET finally also on ice. The ice sound pure in the wahrsten Sine supplies, on instruments, which it carved with a Japanese measurer personally from enormous ice blocks, of the rammer up to staffs, plates and blocks, which ISUNGSET Norwegian TERJE. Its first ice CD, “Iceman Is”, was taken up in the ice hotel by Jukkasjarvi at outside temperatures of -37°C and interior temperatures by -8°C. In order to create optimal conditions for genuine acoustics, an area with walls was built by a meter of thickness, into the daylight only by a small window penetrated. Musical support kept from IRO HAARLA at the ice harp (however of usual harp sides in an ice framework consists) and CEMBRAN PINE HENRIKSEN at an ice trumpet melting slowly when playing ISUNGSET. Fascinated of the work with the ice turned ISUNGSET after Jukkasjarvi back, in order „the Iceman “- successor „Igloo “to take up, this mark as well as the Norwegian avant-garde/jazz singer SIDSEL ENDRESEN. From the wedding of a Polish rock musician there still some Iglus stood, in which the photographs developed: ISUNGSET in one, ENDRESEN in another, and third Iglu served the clay/tone technician as control room. Again prevailed mörderische temperatures below freezing, which were ideal for the consistency of the ice, however not necessarily for the condition of the musicians. The result is however fascinating, then all these sounds is genuine, it is actually the ice, which swings and these different noises there and brings pitches out. Accompanied of the schamanisch seeming singing ENDRESENs, a mixture from sound painting, Gesumme, and something, which sometimes sound after Norwegian, in addition, somewhat completely different one to be could, its own tendency develops: A little magically, a little archaisch, and not completely of this world.

Welkommen til Utvær. Welcome ton of Shipwreck radio. Meanwhile NURSE WITH WOUND undertook a nordisches experiment of special kind: for the photographs too „Shipwreck radio volume One: Seven Sonic Structures from Utvær “traveled STEVEN STACKING CLAY/TONE and COLIN POTTER in the summer 2004 on invitation of a local Radiosenders on the Lofoten. STACKING CLAY/TONE and POTTER should make, through renouncement of conventional instruments and only of noises, which found and noted it on the islands, music for unangekündigte radio endings. Altogether 24 of such transmissions was radiated; first sieve published by them on „Shipwreck radio “- ten, if one takes in account the bonus CD „Lofoten Deadead “, which was attached to the first 150 copies. Snow and ice play a subordinated role in the panorama of an environment, which is sketched here: All noises, which process NURSE WITH WOUND, have their source somewhere on the Lofoten, come from port work and equipment, in and running out ships, from Schiffstakelage, which metallic outer hulls of Fischkuttern, of buildings, Gesprächsfetzen, humans and march music on the local „Codstock “- festival, sea gulls, sea swallows, sea and wind, which are mixed and verfremdet and disturbed, in the continuation of the radio endings, ever more. With „Shipwreck radio volume Two: Eight Enigmatic Episodes from Utvær” and “Shipwreck radio: Finally Broadcasts” followed 2005 and 2006 two continuations with further radio material.

To mention one could, what concerns ice, snow and winter, perhaps in addition the creations VINTERRIKETs, whose Norwegian name means as much as „rule of the winter “, and with those hardly one of their numerous albums winter shade, winter-outlaw, winter flames, the winter realm or winter isolation omit. But a mention is probably enough there. Back thus too NETHERWORLD, that, which concerns the ice, thus not only on the label-own Sampler in considerable society is - and KÖNER, GRASSOW and BAGHIRI, TERJE ISUNGSET and NURSE WITH WOUND put the measuring pole highly. To the originality and the sometimes nearly radio play-like character of the field photographs of STACKING CLAY/TONE and POTTER does not approach NETHERWOLRD, and also behind the ice Avantgardismus of TERJE ISUNGSET project stays - however an approximate repetition its would be also too much expected. Into a row with the mentioned fits NETHERWOLRD nevertheless, because finally belongs also TEDESCHI to those, which loose-pull even with the microphone into arctic Gefilde. Its ice comes, at least at its klanglichen origin, from nature. It remains being waiting, which will proceed glacier movements in the future from GLACIAL MOVEMENTS to hope and that the new label stretching and perhaps also ice-experimental will supply, instead of losing itself Ambientbeliebigkeit.

The Norwegian term ‘Mørketid' refers to a dark period during the year when the Arctic winter cold encases everything and the sun doesn't rise over the horizon. One might expect Alessandro Tedeschi's hour-long Netherworld collection, then, to be a relentlessly gloomy affair but, surprisingly, it's anything but. Tedeschi, who manages the Italian label Glacial Movements, uses sampled fragments of sounds from the Artic area to build soothing, hypnotically lulling pieces that extend broadly and unfurl slowly while allowing ample light to seep in. Muffled voices and field noises give meditative settings like “Dreaming Arctic Expanses,” “New Horizons,” and “Jøkul” a strong sense of place while soft clanks, glistening signal tones, and washes cast a becalmed spell in “Mørketid” that lasts longer than twelve minutes. “North Pole” and the thirteen-minute “Virgin Lands” are textbook examples of time-suspending isolationist ambient music.

Netherworld é o projecto do italiano Alessandro Tedeschi, que começou por escrever crítica musical na revista "Deep Listenings". Em 2004 conheceu Oöphoi e foi na sua editora, Umbra, que lançou uma mão-cheia de CDRs. Iniciou entratanto a Glacial Movements, que se estreou com uma excelente compilação de ambient «Cryosphere», editada há cerca de um ano. Mørketid é o seu segundo álbum - descontando os CDRs - publicado uma semana depois do primeiro, Kall: The Abyss Where Dreams Fall, na francesa Mondes Eliptiques. “Mørketid” é uma palavra norueguesa que designa o período do inverno ártico em que o sol não sobe acima do horizonte e, tal como os restantes títulos e imagens gráficas da obra de Netherworld, invoca um mundo sombrio, silencioso, glacial e imutável. A música de Mørketid foi composta com recurso a pequenos fragmentos sonoros captados nas zonas árticas, posteriormente tratados, samplados e transformados numa nova visão do Ártico. É um ambientalismo abstracto de sons sibilantes e drones espectrais em paisagens desoladas.

La brachicardia ti conserva nel cuore buio del gelido inverno. Apri gli occhi: l'orizzonte ti espande. Rarefazione rigida. Lo sguardo non si aggrappa. Slitta. Precipita in orizzontale. Ogni respiro - lento - è un sussurro. La luce più una questione di memoria che altro. Il suono una foschia. Ogni suono una foschia di sensi straniti-straniati. L'ambiente è saturo di questa voce sovrumana senza fonemi. Ti ci perdi, se vuoi, nella realtà parallela di Alessandro Tedeschi alias Netherworld, architetto d'ambienti polari già noto ai frequentatori di S&A. La compilation Cryosphere - vero e proprio manifesto dell'etichetta Glacial Movements Records fondata dal Tedeschi - fu da noi recensita qualche mese fa, e da allora - non per merito nostro - si è guadagnata apprezzamenti anche oltre confine, divenendo un piccolo fenomeno in ambito electro-drone-ambient.

Ora, questo Morketid dovrebbe essere il quinto o sesto lavoro lungo sotto l'egida Netherworld, quindi possiamo ben considerare il suo marchio estetico/poetico come minimo maturo. Dunque, un'ora di musica per sei tracce che ti avvolgono in un abbraccio gelido ma - come dire? - caloroso, come una palpebra che ti copre/isola, ti fa galleggiare in un'angoscia amniotica tuttavia così astratta da consolarti, apocalisse che nella lentezza - una ammaliante, esasperante ostinazione di lentezza - scopre di covare un'ipotetica genesi. Buio di notte perenne che spande intangibile chiarore. L'impronta sintetica coglie un quid cerebrale che non distingui dall'organico, perché ogni suono potrebbe essere un suono naturale trasfigurato dalle macchine in ordine al tempo, al ritmo, alla fibra del suo manifestarsi. Potrebbe. Lo è? Dilatazione. Espansione. Rarefazione. Astrazione. Cosa importa?

Is the endless night warmer than you expected, or is that just hypothermia?