Nilsen, Bj & Stilluppsteypa – “Drykkjuvisur Ohljodanna ” – [Helen Scarsdale Agency]

Thurston Hunger   12/5/2006   A Library, CD

I have *no* idea how I got trapped beneath so much ice, nor how I am
still cognizant at this point. The last thing I recall, I was listening
to an experimental drone release from B.J. Nilsen and the tremendous
Stilluppstepa and then this. A little while ago I heard a submarine ping
by, that was track one…drunk penguins flirting open four and at the
onset of two it seemed like there was a little drill right by my ear,
but it always gives away to a more distant drone drubbing. Perhaps this
CD itself is keeping me alive…each track nearly perishes into a silent
void, and me with it…but then another slab o’ sub-zero electronics
and I’m alive. Is this some sort of experiment? Am I a wooly mammoth
(the music does warm me in a strange way)? I wish I could turn it up
but my hands are frostbitten to the core. The last track sounds like
a gong being frozen to death…this album kept hitting blank patches
on my laptop, some sort of tundra virus? If Pan Sonic has too much
brownian techno motion, then this Scandinavian brainscan is for you!
Are the song titles split between Swedish (Nilsen) and Icelandic
(Stilluppsteypa’s Berg Sigmarsson and Helgi Thorsson), or are they
cocktails to be served on the rocks.

-Thurston Hunger