Marhaug & Courtis: Jordslev Hojalore
Cassette - Quasipop, Ukraine - 2007

Reviews:

Perhaps Quasipop assume that a cassette player is no longer part of the Vital HQ, but it still is, albeit unconnected to the amplifier. They send a CDR version of a cassette only release by Lasse Marhaug and Anla Courtis. To release it in that format is a brave thing to do, I think. They did some recording together in 1998, which was shelved until now. Together with two new solo pieces it comes in the old form of a cassette. The interesting thing about this is that its not the full blown noise attack, but rather a low volume drone affair. A heavy long sustaining wall of sound, from sources unknown, work on the brain. I was wondering if they had the cassette format in mind when they were recording this. I am listening to the CDR, but I can imagine that the sound will be a bit muffled when played on a cassette and that the hiss will create an additional texture of sound. Quite a pleasing work of ambient industrial music. (FdW, Vital Weekly)

Lasse Marhaug & Anla Courtis - Jordslev Hojaldre [Quasi pop Records - 2007]

This collaboration between Norse noise master Lasse Marhaug & Argentinean musique-concrete artist Anla Courtis summons up a wonderful oppressive, organic and grey hallucinogenic nightmarish world that sits less in the all out sonic attack territory & more in the creepy suffocating dread connor. The tracks either concentrate on muffled and sinister drone emission the lap, ebb and sour your listening space, or crackling/crunching sound rolls that weep eeriness. Or weird sound collages made from discordant/ speed up guitar elements, human chatter & all manner of grey hallucinogenic sound matter. At times it climbs to near noise but it just feels so spent and greyed it never becomes punishing or harsh. This is akin to been wrapped in a strangle comforting but decaying cocoon,it all makes for a bent & sinister sound trip that really seems to sink deep into your psyche leaving your mind reeling with strange imagery and the feeling of oddly sadness. This is my first taste of Courtis work & I have to say I’m highly impressed with his inputting here & as usual Marhaug is on top sonic form, the pair really making an impressive grey sound delight. With the only downside to this exllellent and really must have release is it’s insanely ltd to only 100 cassettes- so act quick & make your way here …the clock is ticking! www.musiquemachine.com

LASSE MARHAUG & ANLA COURTIS – jordslev horaldje

(Tape, Quasipop)

Lots of Lasse Marhaug around here lately, but what the heck – he has been around forever and has done such a vast amount of work that it is probably impossible to get around him. Which brings us right to the point: in 1998 Marhaug did some collaborations with Anla Courtis of Reynols-fame and then around as a solo-entertainer in all kinds of noise contexts around the globe. But those never saw the light of day. In 2007 they once again did some things together and then decided to put them all together and for old time’s sake to release them as a casette. A funny coincidence with Lasse Marhaug’s multi-CD-box of stuff he had released on cassette around that time. Quasipop stepped in to release the tape and all together want to re-release the spirit of the underground cassette culture that was around back then.

Nowadays it is all packed onto some anonmous server somewhere and then distributed with “do you want to be my friend” emails globally. Every kind of stupid track or half assed try at noise is being mailed and downloaded all around the globe, safed onto some harddisk and then forgotten because the mailbox is already full with 120 MB of more noise stuff that is all mediocre. No question I prefer the old-fashioned way, because back then taping, copying, packaging and mailing were a lot of work and also cost intensive, so everybody made sure that only good stuff was being sent around. Therefore a lot of releases from back then still scorch a lot more ground than anything new. I have some tapes around here somewhere that spell the name Lasse Marhaug all over them and are almost worn out from playing. One of my favorite noise records ever is still the “new forms of free entertainment” split CD by Lasse Marhaug and Aube on Jazzassin Records released 1997 in the most wonderful artwork imaginable! Nothing ever can bring back those days. There is only one chance for a first time, ever.

But there are some sounds that can freshen up the memories of these days. This chrome tape for instance has three songs of Marhaug and Courtis collaborating on each side and then topped with a track bei Marhaug and Courtis respectively on one side each. It starts with echoy rumbling that is low and profound and does not move too much but sets the tonality. Track two is more of a dynamic scorcher that burns the earth and makes your eardrums cringe. Track three is another slow, echoy, cold and cave-like drone that has a lot of substance and breathing sounds like Darth Vader has sucked you through his mask into the dark side of your brain that is the evil power. Marhaug’s solo track sounds like the hacked and digitally distorted noises of somebody trying to squeeze a cat through the strings of a violin and then going over the mess with a steeldrill before leaving to watch people at the railway station. And then some. Great stuff indeed. Make your own movie to this.

The second side offers more of this kind of variety, some of which is distorted, some of which are low rumbling drones (oh, how I like these today!) and a final track by Anla Courtis that blows the top for real with all its buzzing.

This collaboration interestingly sounds nothing like what the two did together on “north and south neutrino” (antifrost) back in 2004. The whole atmosphere of “jordslev hojaldre” is less true fidelity, less trying to get the most extreme of digitally clean sound, but has the dirty, layered and lo-fi quality of, well, tapes. Is anybody really missing the sound of worn out tapes and tape reels rotating in the player? Listening to the more silent parts and those were drowned out by the whizz and whirr of the motors of the tape player was never much fun to start with. But those things are being set aside by nostalgia, by the memory of when things like these were really hot and the hope that they might be once again. After all the way we have been going down, going backwards means going up again. (www.monochrom.at)