NILSEN, BJ & STILLUPPSTEYPA - Passing Out

Format: CD

Label & Cat.Number: Helen Scarsdale Agency HMS 013

Release Year: 2008

Note: third & final part of the "Alcohol"-trilogy

Price (incl. 19% VAT): €13.00

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Dritter Teil der nordischen "Drone & Alkohol-Intoxikation"-Trilogie, die den Zustand des Wegtretens zwischen Wachheit und Dämmerzustand klanglich adäquat wiederspiegelt; im tiefen Drone-Morast erscheinen Traumbilder, -gedanken & akustische Sequenzen der Realität auf. In paradoxer Weise ist man dann in der Lage, sowohl unbewusste wie bewusste Geistes-Inhalte zur gleichen Zeit wahrzunehmen...(sagen die Erzeuger dieses Albums). PASSING OUT ist ein One-Tracker von fast 70 Minuten, tiefgrummelnd-bassig und sonor und von mysteriösen, atmend-ächzenden Sounds durchzogen....

"The first chapter found the drink. The second came after a night of intoxicated shouting. The third chapter is inevitable: Passing Out.
The Nordic sound artists BJ Nilsen & Stilluppsteypa have authored the last component to a trilogy of isolationist compositions for barren field recordings and lumbering electric drones, thematically linked in the psychotropic effects of alcohol. In doing so, they have issued a brief statement in defense of their research: "It's been four years and three studies, Passing Out being the final. Even in its most general, colloquial usage, Passing Out indicates the occurrence of a state that is incompatible with active behavior. It is possible that the individual could experience both consciousness and unconsciousness at the same time while encountering Passing Out."
Yes, Passing Out is a crepuscular recording, with the flickering of twilight further dimmed by the distant Arctic sun in wintertime and the blackened numbness of too much drink. With one singular track that spans 60 minutes, a nearly constant thrum and rumble of monochromatic low frequencies casts a grim pall upon the precisely dialed-in modulations and vibrations. Spectral guitars, maudlin tunes from haunted radios, angrily growling voices, and field recordings of wind-whipped snow and ice bury themselves deep amidst these subharmonic drones. All of these tease at the edge of perception, sculpting the narrative of the drone into a vehicle for unhinged expressionism of varying degrees of horror, melancholy, beauty, and oblivion.
The Swedish born BJ Nilsen defines his work as "focused upon the sound of nature and its effects on humans, and the perception of time and space as experienced through sound." He has numerous recordings on Touch and has collaborated with the likes of Chris Watson, Christian Fennesz, and Z'ev. The Icelandic citizens Sigtryggur Berg Sigmarsson and Helgi Thorsson are Stilluppsteypa, whose electronic abstractions engage absurd theatrics that mar the pristine surface of minimalism..." [label info]

"....The complete and total isolation of the music, the long passages of seemingly no action (there is just one piece, clocking it at 68 minutes), with then a sudden break, a melody filters in, the radio starts humming and field recordings - that backbone of so much in Vital Weekly and certainly here - make this an album of not just pure drones or just processed field recordings, but the strange elements thrown in, give this album a stranger, almost alien feel to it. If it's the equivalent of passing out is a bit hard to say: the act of passing out on alcohol prevents you from remembering anything. This is however their best album to date and makes a strong trilogy." [FdW / Vital Weekly]

"...Deep resonant vibrations abound, with some creepy breathing in your ear whisperings that may be those Leif Elggren vocals that Benny
was talking about. Gradually, all of these deep drones and shadowy overtures glide into a slumbering descent. But the Icelandic weirdoes
in Stilluppsteypa couldn't just let the album drift away without their absurdism forcing through the door, as they blurt with a clinical repetition of blooping electronics smashed and grabbed from Raymond Scott circa Manhattan Research. It's an unsettling climax to the album, but one that works brilliantly through Stilluppsteypa's expert use of electro-acoustic black humor. But it's drone that dominates the album, as angelic wash and devilish rumble collude to end this magnificent album. Oblivion never sounded so good. Passing Out is beautifully packaged with letterpressed and silkscreened artwork. Very nice." [Aquarius Records review]

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