Some Place Else is proud to release the new album by Moljebka Pvlse, entitled Sadalsuud. For this album, Mathias Josefson collaborated with a number of his colleagues who provided him various source sounds to work with.
The name Sadalsuud refers to a star of the same name in the constellation of Aquarius. The name comes from an Arabic phrase meaning “the luckiest of them all”. Nevertheless the album is rather earthy-sounding, yet mystical and surreal, almost claustrophobic at times. The sound is vaguely reminiscent of some works by Nurse With Wound, Maeror Tri or The Hafler Trio, but carries the trademark Moljebka Pvlse feel. An unsuspecting pre-listener described Sadalsuud as “a visit to a supposedly haunted house, though only once you’ve entered the house you begin to grasp the real meaning of haunting.”
SPECD07040. CD in digipak, edition of 500 copies.
Reviews
“There are many instruments used here. From no-input mixer to mbira, from found sound to ‘supercollider’, whatever that is. You will not get to know what it is either as the lot works more textural and forms a mass in which most isn’t really discernable. Over the course of the piece the sounds morph and meld into each other, with the most earthly sounds being metallic scrapings and the whispers mentioned earlier. The voice, sometimes processed into that of what seems a ghostly apparition, is the recurring element that takes us through the slow metamorphosis of sounds surrounding it.
The drones mostly are dark but not disturbing, more mysterious and intriguing. About 45 minutes into the piece there is a notable shift in tone though. The scrapes get more nasty and there the dangers that were lurking around the corner all the time manifest. These sounds bring us back to earth a bit, where female moans hallucinate and take us in less pleasant, scarier realms. Almost fifteen minutes later it gets even scarier with the sounds of what seems stressed seagulls and more violent constellation of sounds, in which some nasty frequencies pierce your ears.
Sadalsuud is a varied drone-piece that I quite enjoy listening too. It’s dark ambient without being specifically locked the genre that goes by that name, but in the sense that it’s dark and it’s ambient. Towards the end it’s a lot less ambient and these more oppressive passages certainly provide these seventy minutes with some interesting dynamics.” (Musique Machine)
“I believe, at least for my part, that is what makes this album so enjoyable – that one can fearlessly inquire into its environment and start walking the paths of this forgotten, mysterious garden, getting acquainted with its inhabitants one by one, observing them as they emerge from various hidden places, discreetly yet boldly. At times melancholic, at times frightening, powerful, alien or intimate, it grows on one and with each new listen original elements are implemented into the whole.” (Heathen Harvest)
“Sadalsuud is a track that combines synthesis, live instruments and vocals into a rich dark ambient tapestry, and it works very well indeed. The music is exceptionally creepy, lots of evil sounding scrapes, screeches and drones and the whispering female vocals repeating refrains is very effective at getting the hairs on the back of your neck to stand up. Not one for the works Christmas party, this one!” (Igloo Magazine)
“A wide palette of sound sources, featuring instrumental and concrete materials, result in a complex tapestry woven by means of different colours, densely layered, textural threads of a horizontal nature. Traces of pedal music, recurrent movements in slow circular fashion contribute to the impression of staticness in spite of the continuous motion. Processing of sources introduces a new dimension, adding brighter, more luminous shades of colour to a somewhat ochre backcloth.“ (Modisti)
“It has to be said, as with most albums consisting of one long track, that there are places in “Sadalsuud” where things begin to drag and appear repetitive. For all the different musicians involved the same voices and sounds recur with increasing frequency, and around the mid-section there is a feeling that we are not actually going to reach any real conclusion. Luckily, new sounds develop leading to a heightened tension, before a rather intimidating crescendo of metallic scraping jars the nerves. This gives way to some disturbing processed vocals, followed by some more delicate and calming strings to inspire a more subtle emotional response, before the harsh noises return to cause upset once again!” (Connexion Bizarre)
“The new CD Sadalsuud sees the participation of different people at the gathering of sounds. I don’t know the process that brought to the realization of the album, but by reading the list of instruments and sound sources and by listening to the final result, I image Mathias at the mixer in a sort of state of trance, blending the different sounds by following his instincts. The 70 minutes long suite has compared to the sound of a haunted house and by listening how the vocals have been treated (distant hums, meows, etc), how the noises slowly increase and how, generally, the tension grows (as the sound turns more dark and less rhythmical), I could think about the same thing. To tell the truth there’s another image that comes to my mind by listening to this track: I picture a sort of earth ritual performed by a tribal community, where objects are beaten, words are whispered and nature seems to speak. A thing is for sure, this CD needs time to be appreciated and assimilated but it sounds mysterious and inspired since the first listening.”(Chain D.L.K.)
”The music develops in slow pace, with long, if not endless sustaining sounds that are not unlike the drones of Nurse With Wound’s ‘Soliloque For Lilith’ or some of the more louder Hafler Trio moments. Also on this new album, the influence of Irr. Apt (Ext) can be heard, mainly in the whispering of voices (which is also a Nurse With Wound thing I’d say). Dark and atmospheric, this is best described as the soundtrack to a horror movie that doesn’t dwell on sudden effects, but which has an overall creepy atmosphere. Nothing surprising going on here, but very nicely made.” (Vital Weekly)
