Ulver Album: “Lyckantropen Themes (Sdtk)”

This is probably the most simplistic and minimalist Ulver release. It is a monotone, electrically engineered, lycanthropic journey through the night. The album has a distinctive dark atmosphere like I've never heard anywhere before, only hinted around on maybe three other Ulver releases. By looking through the booklet, there are images of modern, mysterious, unsettling, dark rooms and streets, which seem to match the music's mood. All the pictures are at night, like the movie takes place in some freakish world where the sun never rises. Garm's vocals are absent on this album, making more of an empty, lonely feeling. The songs flow into each other like a cycling electric current, brilliantly composed. I'd have to say the album is more similar to post-rock, with its extreme minimalist aura: many parts of this album have a steady, but faint background rhythm or constant noises, and the tones and melodies keep changing slowly. The album has a contemplative and lonely feeling, like someone in a huge futuristic city with people everywhere but they are somehow isolated and diverged.

Some tracks worth pointing out are Track 10, which is a deviation from the rest of the album, sounding like a factory out of control with a bunch of mangled industrial sounds attacking you; Track 9, which contains a strangely groovy electronic sound; and Track 7, with its beautiful, blossoming piano melody.

When I first got this, I didn't think it was that good, probably because most of the album sounds similar to itself, but after a while I realized that it's really something that has a certain atmosphere and mood that I've never heard before, and can barely explain. You really need an open mind and patience to let it grow on you.

This is definitely one of the best electronic Ulver albums to date. There are only a few clips and samples of vocals, so it is basically instrumental (i.e. no Garm singing). It is gorgeously, evocatively minimalist, in a post-rock sort of way, using repetition and change in an episodic manner with thick threads of tonal color and dynamics. The album is mostly sad and pensive, with some haunting, gray synth lines and it has a subtle, suggestive forward motion that evokes the nocturnal, lonely, futuristic cityscape. The ending is confrontational and frightening. Ulver's tones and beats are extremely conservative yet their applications and choices are utterly successful. This was the soundtrack to a short movie (for which they won some kind of big award in Norway -- just because the music is so good and inspired, it makes me kind of want to see the movie) so it only lasts for about 37 minutes. But it is an amazing 37 minutes that takes you through an affecting story, whether you have seen the movie or not. Very highly recommended.

I found this a very interesting installment in the experiment of Ulver in that rather than being thought-provoking as other CD's of theirs (and other good bands) have been in the past, it is instead thought-facilitating. The ambience allows for you to fill in the substance running through your senses without crowding the mind with solid melodies and complex sounds. Instead, this aggressively passive music will give a border and a theme to whatever you are thinking at the time. I enjoyed this EP immensely.

I liked Ulver's work up through Themes from William Blake's the Marriage of Heaven and Hell (great album that), but ever since they've been less and less interesting. Perdition City at least varied things a bit, even if the end product was not very impressive. This album is basically one long electronic doodle. It's almost a stretch to call it musical, much less enjoyable. If you need some random background electronic beeping to help you fall aslepp, go into a trance, or dierct planes from Air Traffic Control, you might find a use for this, but if you're wanting a listenable, enjoyable, musical experience, best look elsewhere. I can appreciate Garn's experimental aspirations, but this is just lame, and I won't be wasting any more of my time or $ on his future recordings

As a huge fan of Perdition City, I must admit that this one is

unfortunately disappoting. It's less about melodies, more 'bout ambience. So if you didn't watch the flick (like I do) it's worthless.