Deaf Center returns with Owl Splinters
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Label: Type Records
Year: 2011
Format: CD/LP
Few could have foreseen the impact on the ambient and home listening scene, this duo would make when they released their debut EP Neon City back in 2004, followed by the critically acclaimed album debut Pale Ravine. Norway had had a long tradition of “arctic ambient” and the chilled minimalism spearheaded by the Beatservice collective which centered around early movers like Biosphere, Information, Neural Network, Aedena Cycle, and their various side projects, but come late 90s and early years of the new millenia, there did not seem to be anyone to uphold this fine tradition. Enter Erik Knive Skodvin and Otto Totland – whose sound re-instated this notion and further developed the old ambient sound with their collage of dark cinematic and theatrical soundscapes befitting (David) Lynchean style, beautifully moving classical compositions and the ambient inspiration of Norwegian landscapes nurturing key concepts like isolation, serenity, privacy and the undisturbed or secluded.
Scraping cello strings rend emotional tears within for the opening piece Divided and listeners who remember Pale Ravine should immediately feel at ease and familiar with the high degree of cinematic in this duo’s compositions. Next follows the beautiful and exquisite Time Spent (ed. especially for an afficinado of piano melodies like yours truly) – an all too short, but immensely concise and powerful piano lullaby, with brooding dark tones to offset the lighter, magical feel of the main melody. As with Deaf Center in the past, Skodvin and Totland bring different forces to the table, Skodvin is probably better known for improvisation, noise and doom that shrouds the Deaf Center and creates its mystical environment, while Totland is the eye of the storm, with lavishing, serene tones that paradoxically scream tranquility and calm into the listener. Totland (also one half of the brilliant Nest) maneuvers the grand piano with expert ease (the hypnotic tones of New Beginning coming at you like the tidal currents, or the both at once sombre, lingering and uplifting lead on The Day I Would Never Have – an epic piece where Skodvin’s clicks and processed sounds seep into the slow-treading piano melody of Totland) and Skodvin’s cello arrangements and electronic processing complements and complete the picture time and time again (particularly his solo exhibition in Animal Sacrifice which instils a sense of imminent and brutal as the scraping strings grow and ebb, slowly inching into your head, under your skin).
The result is a eight neo-classical compositions where you marvel at the soundscapes and wish there was a film to go with the score. Each of the two musicians is every bit remarkable, classically-trained solo artists (Totland on the piano, Skodvin with cello as also heard in his side project Svarte Greiner) and together they present themselves as accomplished collaborators giving the other space to let their instruments unfold and play off each other.
The music is monumental and breath-taking – if Pale Ravine is a timeless testament of Deaf Center in 2006, Owl Splinters should be more than capable of standing the test of time and further define this duo. Warmly recommended and essential purchase – out now on Type Records!
