HUNTSVILLE-PAST INCREASING, FUTURE RECEDING.
HUNTSVILLE-PAST INCREASING, FUTURE RECEDING.
A mausoleum sounds an unlikely place to record an album. Even unlikelier is a mausoleum whose walls are covered with frescos painted by one of the greatest Norwegian artists of the nineteenth century. However unlikely this sounds, Emanuel Vigeland’s Mausoleum In Oslo is proving a popular, but unlikely place both for Norwegian musicians. Over the past few years, the Mausoleum has been transformed into both a concert hall and recording studio. Why? The reason to this simple, its acoustics.
A truly atmospheric, double-barreled room, daylight never finds its way into the Mausoleum. In many ways, its the antithesis of the modern recording studio. Nowadays, recording studios are light, airy places, full of the latest recording equipment. That doesn’t necessary make them a good place to record an album. That requires good acoustics, and the Mausoleum has that. Proof of this are the albums recorded in the Mausoleum.
Among them are two albums by Huntsville, one of Norway’s most innovative, inventive and imaginative bands. They recorded their critically acclaimed third album For Flowers, Cars and Merry Wars in the Mausoleum. Released in 2011 on Hubro Music, For Flowers, Cars and Merry Wars was a coming of age album from Huntsville. Critics hailed the album as Huntsville’s most innovative offering. Surpassing this wasn’t going to be easy. So Huntsville returned to the Mausoleum and recorded their fourth album Past Increasing, Future Receding which will be released on 7th October 2013 on Hubro Music. Will Past Increasing, Future Receding replicate the critical acclaim of its predecessor? That’s what I’ll tell you.
It was back in 2006 that the Norwegian trio Huntsville recorded their debut album For The Middle Class. A genre-sprawling album, critics realized that Ivar Grydeland, Tonny Kluften and Ingar Zach weren’t just talented, but truly innovative musicians and producers.
Two years after the release of For The Middle Class came their sophomore album Echo, Arches and Eras. This was no ordinary album. Quite the opposite. It was an ambitious double album where musical genres melted into one. One track, Eras, was a fifty-four minute opus, where Huntsville were joined by Glen Kotche and Nels Cline. If critics weren’t taking notice of Huntsville, they were after Echo, Arches and Eras. However, their next album would surpass everything that’s gone before.
Released in 2011, Music For Flowers, Cars and Merry Wars was the album that launched Huntsville. They’d switched labels, joining Hubro Music, a progressive label with a reputation for releasing innovative music. That was the perfect way to describe For Flowers, Cars and Merry Wars. Innovative, mesmeric and blessed with an ethereal beauty, critics and connoisseurs of good music awaited the followup to For Flowers, Cars and Merry Wars.
Since the release of For Flowers, Cars and Merry Wars, Huntsville have been busy. They released a collaboration with Splashgirl. Entitled Splashgirl/Huntsville, it showcased two of Norway’s most forward thinking groups. After that, work began on Huntsville’s forthcoming album, Past Increasing, Future Receding.
Recording of Past Increasing, Future Receding took place in Emanuel Vigeland’s Mausoleum. For Huntsville, that was the only place the album could be recorded. After all, so important are the Mausoleum’s famed acoustics, that they refer to it as the fourth member of the group. Its dark, some would say bleak and gloomy surroundings are full of ghosts of the past. Atmospheric and evocative, full of history and darkness, the surroundings could either prove inspirational, or stifle creativity? Which is the case with Huntsville’s fourth album Past Increasing, Future Receding? That’s what I’ll tell you.
Presence in Absence, a seventeen-minute opus opens Past Increasing, Future Receding. It’s best described as an understated, but moody soundscape. You’re drawn in by the washes of synths, before Huntsville spring a surprise. Suddenly, a drum crashes. It adds drama, before feedback shrieks and white noise buzzes. You await Huntsville’s next curve ball. A drum pounds, cymbals crash and reverb gives way to subtle cymbals. By now, it’s a truly enthralling adventure. A bass threatens to break free, while guitars chime and hi-hats hiss. Gradually, the drama builds and the track reveals its secrets. Cymbals crash, crystalline guitars chime and drums pound as musical genres and influences meet head on. Everything from ambient, free jazz, folk, psychedelia and rock combine on a track that somehow manages to be ethereal and beautiful, while being dramatic, overpowering and moody.
A bass synth is like a siren as The Flow of Sand unfolds. Sinister noises join forces, playing their part in the track’s dark, minimalist, cinematic sound. Sounds assail you, surround you, threaten you. Deliberate stabs of piano to provide relief, from the cyborg sound. Robotic, machinelike it’s as if the Spiders From Mars have arrived somewhat belatedly. The music paints pictures and scenarios. These scenarios are futuristic, full of eerie, sci-fi sounds. Flourishes of piano and supernatural strings join galloping drums. They seem keen to recreate the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Best described as bold, brave music, it’s music that’s intelligent, challenging and innovative. It’s music for a film that’s yet to be made. That’s up to you. You let the music wash over you, painting pictures in your mind’s eye.
In An Hourglass closes Past increasing, Future Receding. Minimalist and moody, space is used effectively. Huntsville are mindful of Miles Davis’ quote that sometimes, the space between two notes is important as the notes themselves. Synths beep and squeak, cymbals crash and drums boom. Space adds to the drama. Cymbals crash, resonating into the distance. Slow, spacious and sinister, a myriad of noises threaten to interrupt this 21st Century soundscape. It draws influence from Brian Eno, Pink Floyd, free jazz and Buddhistic meditation music. Adding an ethereal contrast is an acoustic guitar. It veers between Flamenco and folk as the track heads to an enigmatic, ethereal and poignant crescendo.
Just three songs and thirty-five minutes long, Huntsville’s fourth album Past increasing, Future Receding picks up where they left off with Flowers, Cars and Merry Wars. A trio of atmospheric and evocative soundscapes, it’s minimalist music that paints pictures. Bold, brave and inventive, it’s innovative and imaginative music. I’d also describe Past increasing, Future Receding as cerebral cinematic soundscapes. Sometimes, it’s full of futuristic, sci-fi sounds, that pique your imagination. That’s why it’s articulate and intelligent music. Other times, it’s moody and broody, but can just as easily become crystalline and ethereal, as influences and genres melt into one.
Past increasing, Future Receding is an eclectic melting pot of influences and genres. Listen carefully and you’ll hear Brian Eno, Can, Neu, the Cocteau Twins, Robin Guthrie, Harold Budd and Mind Over Midi. Everything from ambient music, electronica, free jazz, Flamenco, folk and Krautrock melt magically in Huntsville’s musical melting pot. These influences and genres play their part in what’s the best album of Huntsville’s career, Past increasing, Future Receding.
Huntsville’s decision to record Past increasing, Future Receding at Emanuel Vigeland’s Mausoleum proved inspirational. Past increasing, Future Receding which will be released on 7th October 2013, on Hubro Music, is Huntsville’s fourth and best album. It surpasses even the critically acclaimed For Flowers, Cars and Merry Wars. That was Huntsville’s Magnus Opus. Not any more. It’s been surpassed by Past increasing, Future Receding, an innovative, inventive and atmospheric genre-melting album.
HUNTSVILLE-PAST INCREASING, FUTURE RECEDING.
dereksmusicblog
dereksmusicblog 