Erik Skodvin's "Flare" on Sonic Pieces
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Label: Sonic Pieces
Year: 2010
Format: CD/LP
With Erik Skodvin’s (aka. Svarte Greiner and still one half of Deaf Center) no longer recent move to Berlin, and his past close collaboration with Greg Haines, it was only a matter of time before two and two got put together and his peers in Berlin would capture Skodvin’s signature. And what an accomplishment we are treated to behold as a result!
Across this 10-piece album, Erik Skodvin departs from his acoustic doom guise of Svarte Greiner and presents himself under his own name, and the music style captures the essence of Skodvin’s contributions to Deaf Center complemented by his darker sounding Svarte Greiner output. The opening piece, Etching an Entrance, unfolds with vibrating, scraping strings and a brooding horn set to Skodvin’s gentle, sparse piano tones etching out an opening in a thus aptly named piece. Skodvin has always had a sense for the dreary, macabre with hints of the cinematic, and Matiné follows up with piano chords rolling out into the distant as repetitive guitar chords – reminiscent of Xela’s tones in The Dead Sea – strum along to the fleeting horns until the piano ebbs out in conclusion. Pitch Dark is a cinematic affair of an eerie, female vocal lingering just out of reach set to a slow-paced piano and scraping strings, very reminiscent the style of Soundscaping’s own released Strië. Continuing in the same subdued style, Failing Eyes feels like an ode to the ethereal and desolate guitar chords of Ry Cooder or his contemporary Damian Valles, Neither Dust picks up a lulling, entrancing pace of volleying guitar and scraping strings and piano keys sent off into thin air and a wailing sound that ensures the propulsion of the tune, until Graves sees the return of those repetitive guitar chords heard in the second track, offset by dispersed drum beats and a droning overlay and a female chorus which floats above like an angelic element. For yours truly, it’s the end which sees the two highlights and the climax, quite fitting, in the album with the masterfully subdued and restrained Vanished set up the contrasting finish of Caught in Flickering Lights, a closing piece which draws on all the past pieces to produce a monumental exit with reverberating drones, cascading piano chords, hypnotically repeating strummed guitars and those wailing strings that sound the alarm – warning of a dream coming to an end, or sleep about to be entered, as the last chords of the guitar ebb out as muted percussive elements and then silence.
Skodvin manages to produce an album which grips you completely as a listener, changing the pace from slow, trudging pieces with intimate details to more classical pieces which clearly incorporates a finely honed product of the various monikers Skodvin has played part in, and also evident of inspiration from his peers like Xela, Greg Haines, Nils Frahm and the creative collective in his new place of residence in Berlin, which seems nurtured and managed well in part by Monique Recknagel and the Sonic Pieces label. If you have liked Skodvin’s previous output – whether as Deaf Center or Svarte Greiner, you will definitely like Flare which is a personal favourite and highlight of his musical repertoire to date. Be sure also to look out for Deaf Center’s new Owl Splinters out on Type Records now.
