knive inside

The record: Knive
The artisit: Svarte Greiner

My $0.02:
difficult to describe this Norweigian's music so I will rely on the usually reputable tags from LastFM -- "acoustic doom" "dark ambient" "experimental" "noise" "haunting." If you are stranded in some metropolitan catacomb with low light, obscured moon and no cell phone, this is your soundtrack. "The Black Dress" and "Final Sleep" are terrifyingly beautiful songs, which is ironic because these two pieces, along with the album's other songs, really aren't "songs" or "tracks" -- consider this album and its accompanying pieces as a collection of artfully painted soundscapes. The craft work displayed on Knive is eerily precise.

I can't speak highly enough of Svarte's work, espcially Knive. (Love the album cover, too.) The album is largely disconnected from its components, which further adds to the turbulence and anxiety one feels as each sound emits from somewhere beyond the compact disc or mp3. (Highly recommended for those compelled to darkness and pre-apocalyptic sounds.) In "Final Sleep" you can practically hear the four horsemen patiently jockeying for their glorious descent.

Knive's magic is that it plays like some macabre prologue -- a vile premonition crawls under the record. Knive is not darkness; true darkness lies in the album's concluding moments -- and the Knive-stained imagination of the listener after Svarte's sounds have fallen silent.

If you are finding it difficult to track down a copy of this record send me an e-mail or comment...


Svarte Greiner MySpace

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