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This has been a foreign year.
Our first gig after Lillehammer was at the Brutal Assault festival in the Czech Republic early August. A strange thing, with a crowd of about 10 000 people – so many at a loss – and severe monitoring problems. We pulled through alright, but it definitely made us realise how far removed we are from the metal arena. Nonetheless we are considering doing Hellfest next year, together with our friends Ihsahn and Sunn O))).
Next thing was the Norwegian Øya festival in Oslo medio August. Our first gig with a second drummer, Tomas Pettersen, as well as a guest appearance by Jørgen Munkeby on saxophone. We played a good one, kind of blue, as the sun descended over our hometown. A few days later we went to Mølla, which is an old mill by a waterfall in Gjerstad, a small municipality in the deep south of Norway. It was a tranquil happening, maybe too much so, as we finally went on stage at 02:30 in the morning. We couldn't see much, but think the party was over. We played for the woods. Thank you, Knut.
We then drove north to Trondheim and the Pstereo festival, situated right next to the bewitching Nidaros Dome. It was a technical nightmare, the power broke down thrice during our set due to some earth fault. It was a mess. At least it was dark. Conclusion: Festivals are hazardous, people and place being out of control. Hate it.
Queen Elizabeth Hall in London was a good turn in terms of scene and ambience. Playing for about 1 000 people in seats, some in suits, and with a Britpop band called Mothlite as opening act. A very special night. However we must say we were mightily disappointed by the rigidity of the Southbank bureaucracy, being a body with official sources up their asses. Fuckers banked in excess of NOK 100 000 and sent us home in debt. That just ain't right. And on top they have the audacity to withhold money for our merchandise, contrary to contract. Pay up, you red-tapists.
Gagarin 205 in Athens was a sound show, even though we weren't necessarily on our best form. Didi Music treated us as kings and queens, oh, the queens that are in some of us. In grim contrast to the story above. Thank you, especially to Kostas and Eleni, for everything. Io Pan.
Down to earth, below the Acropolis: We are painfully aware of the passing since Shadows. It's time to get another Ulver proper out, and we have started to write. Our own dark brand.
Subsidiarily: We have recorded some hippie songs, from the sixties, bands like The 13th Floor Elevators, Byrds, Jefferson Airplane and stranger Aquarian folks. We aim to make this into a full album, a kind of Ulver kicking against the pricks. We'll put up a rough mix of our take at I had too much to dream last night, next week.
There is also a collaboration with Sunn O))). We had a terrific tracking session with the Nazgûls after their appearance at the Øya festival well over a year ago. We spent a month or so editing the material and adding our sheen to the sound. Since then it has unfortunately been lying dormant due to difficulties getting everyone together. We hope to join forces and finish the thing this spring. It is becoming a ghost.
Although being little more than an intro, you might want to check out Another brick in the wall part I, which we recorded for the latest Mojo magazine and their Pink Floyd special, celebrating the 30th anniversary of The Wall.
Also read marine-biologist-become-music-journalist Seth Beaudreault's interview with us, published on Avantgarde-metal.com last night together with a Queen Elizabeth Hall live report etc. The interview was done the day after our stage debut in Lillehammer, Norway, this May. A colloquial conversation, and rather lenghty. Seth, it was a pleasure. Take care, wherever you may roam.
Lastly we would like to welcome Daniel O'Sullivan into the pack. We all know that God exists as three persons, but now is the dawn of the triangular pyramid.
ULVER, the stray dogs of Athens, November 26 2009.
TERRORIZER INTERVIEW # 187 SUMMER 2009
Folkloric Norwegian black metallers turned expansive, experimental mystics Ulver are to make their UK debut with a show at South London's Queen Elizabeth Hall on October 9, featuring support from Mothlite (featuring Ulver live guitarist/piano hands Daniel O'Sullivan). In May, the band made their first live appearance in fifteen years at the Norwegian Festival Of Literature in Lillehammer, ensuring that this forthcoming, Terrorizer-endorsed event will be a feast for not just the ears, but the mind. Louise Brown got advance notice from vocalist Kristoffer Rygg.
Why do you choose to do only few events?
We have been asked a lot and always said, "No", maybe because we didn't need it. The excuses have been many. But the last couple of years we have been talking more and more about it; that it would be good for us somehow, to come out of our cave and reconnect with humanity! And, I'm not ashamed to say, with the added pressure of the record industry's downfall, it has become an imperative. It's a combination of destitution and daring I suppose. A necessary live evil, if you will.
We take the task seriously, as we do most stuff. We are no strangers to the grandiose, but we are not grand gesticulators. It's not in our nature to put on a show; we've had to compensate for our incompetencies by emphasising other things, like light and projection.
What made you agree to do this concert in London?
When we first started to consider doing live shows we all agreed that conventional touring was not an option. We wanted to do one-off concerts in main cities and venues. This one kind of goes without saying; it's the Queen Elisabeth Hall. We feel privileged and proud to be in a position where something like that is even possible, it being one of our first concerts ever. Besides, one of our members, Daniel O'Sullivan, is from London. Our agent too, Mark [Lewis] has done an amazing job making it happen, and it would be downright uncultured to decline.
You played recently the Norwegian Festival Of Literature, it seems an odd choice, what made you agree to that?
Not many know, but Ulver member Jørn H. Sværen is also a writer and an editor, running two avant-garde small presses in Norway. So the association is not that strange. And the former artistic director of the festival, Mr. Stig Sæterbakken, is no stranger to melancholy. He knew what it would take, and it was him that approached us with the right conditions in the first place. The festival being the largest of its kind in Scandinavia, it had the necessary funds to give us time and space to focus on the stage.
What was the reaction from fans to seeing you live, many for the first time?
It was a very benevolent atmosphere. The audience seemed almost as nervous as we were and I think most of them were quite taken by it, despite getting some criticism for it being too short, which is a positive negative. We also showed some pretty brutal images on screen and I was worried that people would be taken aback by that, but no, it was all very reassuring.
SHIRT DESIGN BY TRINE + KIM 2009
www.trineogkim.no
Live pictures have been posted under IMAGES, have a look.
SHIRT DESIGN BY LEAGUE 2009
www.league.ch
SHIRT DESIGN BY LEAGUE 2009
www.league.ch
We did it. Faced the music. And you.
Thanks so much to all of you who came from everywhere to little Lillehammer, making our first concert as this band not the last. Alaska, Australia, Brazil, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Los Angeles, Mexico, Texas. The world came to us that day. And we were touched. We were freaking out, but feel sort of comforted and/or reassured now. We have decided to play again; but for how long and under which conditions are uncertain. Visitation hours are short. Someone wants it to go on forever. We are not sure.
We were Ole Aleksander Halstensgård, Pamelia Kurstin, Lars Pedersen, Kristoffer Rygg, Daniel O'Sullivan, Jørn H. Sværen, Tore Ylwizaker.
Our special thanks goes to the following people:
- Kristin Bøyesen, for all her efforts in the preparation for projection. You are a cat with a camera.
- Paal Klaastad and Terje Bjordal at Oslo Audio, for high maintenance. God stemning.
- Neil McNasty, for lights and illuminati. We thought we were paranoid.
- Cornelius Jakhelln, who gave a public talk on us, as we exist in his mind. In a climate full of conceit and ungenerosity, it speaks volumes for a musician to address another in such a manner. Read Cornelius' text below.
- Regine Stokke, a brave girl sentenced with MDS/AML. Our burdens are nil compared to yours. We are glad you did make it to the concert and that we got to say hello to you. It is truly astounding how you manage to smile in the face of such adversity. Forgive us our pathetic coquetry with death. We don't know what else to say.
- Finally, Mr. Stig Sæterbakken, fine author and former artistic director of the Norwegian Festival of Literature. We would still be in hiding if it were not for your incessant insistence.
ULVER, sunshine, June 22 2009.
WE'RE WOLVES: METAMORPHOSIS DRESSED IN BLACK
Lecture given at the Norwegian Festival of Literature
Lillehammer, Norway
May 30 2009
Cornelius Jakhelln
I shall speak as a musician speaks of other musicians: with envy. I can think of no greater compliment from one follower of Apollo's art to another, than this short statement, voiced with difficulty and easily misunderstood: I envy you. And that is my statement to Ulver, on this day of their first concert: I do envy you.
I was there when your first album appeared in 1994. And I am here when you give your first concert fifteen years later, in 2009.
I'm a musical infidel. I freely admit it. Everybody knows everything, it seems, except me. I may make your blood freeze by insisting on my own ignorance; however, I listen to Ulver as an insider with a distance, possibly as a related outsider.
As a peripheral member of the same music scene in which Ulver started their journey, that of Norwegian Black Metal (avantgarde or not), I share much of the same aesthetics and references as the wolves.
You know everything about this band. I have nothing to teach you.
Still, let me quote Didrik Søderlind's press release for Ulver's last album Shadows of the Sun, as he succinctly sums up the band's evolution:
"For even though it might be hard to believe it when you listen to the soft-spoken new album, Ulver were once a seminal black metal band. They even have the name (Ulver translates as "Wolves") and a trilogy of folklore-inspired metal to prove it.
But even in a scene that sent shockwaves around the world, Ulver were outsiders. While other black metallers were "slaves to the one with horns", Ulver were inspired by Thomas Kingo, a 17th century composer of psalms.
As the band matured, their influences became even more eclectic. Techno auteurs Autechre rubbed shoulders with visionary mystic William Blake. Ulver have released acoustic folk albums and instrumental techno records, raw metal and industrial soundscapes, and they have composed music for films."
Also, I asked Ulver member Jørn H. Sværen a few questions that came to me, such as "Who does what in the band?"; "How does the music come about?"; "Are you the ideologist of the band?"; "How long have you been working with Kris?"; "Do you see any deeper connection between your publishing houses England and H Press, and Ulver?" This is what he answered:
"It has been a conscious decision on our part, not dwelling on who's doing what in Ulver. It has resulted in quite a few speculations, that I'm playing drums for example, I can't play a note. But that is of less importance, Ulver is a state of mind in my view. I am not the ideologist in the group, if I were to pin it down then let's say Tore is the engineer, I am the puritan and Kris is the visionary. I met Kris in the late eighties or early nineties, I don't remember. Only that it was in a line outside a concert in Oslo, I think it must have been Morbid Angel. We hooked up and became friends, Kris is one of my closest now. I don't see H Press and England as connected with Ulver, but it all stems from the same source if you will. The books from England for example, they could be said to touch on the same truths that make up the core of Shadows, I think in both the lyrics and the music. The great and grand clichés. Kris and I write the lyrics together, and they naturally show the signs of our dispositions."
I have organised my lecture as a trip through the album Blood Inside, incidentally my favourite in the Ulver discography. More than pure analysis of the music, the talk will give you an insight into my personal Ulver phenomenology. I am
DRESSED IN BLACK
You shall know them by metamorphosis; "like hell we are, all dressed in black," they say.
These playful words remain unsaid: "We're wolves, were wolves, werewolves."
You shall know them by grandeur, percussive heartbeats insisting that time is alive in music; "Monumental or something?" they say
You shall know them by strings transposed and transported into the digital domain, plucking away on your nervous system, singing songs of death and subsequent rebirth: "We dug our own graves a long time ago".
Let me be a snotty, coke-snorting journalist for a second: "Dressed in Black" sounds like the Coldplay of black metal ... I am tempted to label it (tongue-in-cheek) Grand Nocturnal Pop, possibly Grand Rock of the Night ... with a piano passage at 6.20 mins that sounds a bit like a quote out of the Georges Bizet's opera Carmen?
Using music as a soundtrack to your own life is a worthy quality test: With "Dressed in Black" droning in my ears I run my normal route, mirroring much of Berlin, or European culture, modernity or even civilisation – I am no stranger to big words, and definitely find them appropriate here – I envy Ulver their musical expression, because its melancholy mirrors the greyness of my former GDR neighbourhood, my passing the bunker where Adolf Hitler shot himself on April 30th in 1945, then further on past the Holocaust memorial, an ominous mass of concrete blocks resembling anonymous graves, then head-on into the lush alleyways of Tiergarten, chasing the setting sun westwards. The low bpm of the music calms my pulse, sort of, and the ringing choirs and echoes beautifully capture the moment.
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD
You shall know them by ambition, by their scoring the resurgence of the Tower and the descent of God: "Blood of the God word, spoken in tongues ... That we may see the end of the Babel Tower," they say, voicing desires so far unspoken ... "Fucking heaven to kingdom come".
And that sentence has many meanings I will not count: Fucking heaven to kingdom come.
"For The Love of God" invites you into a Sigur Rós-like soundscape with droning bass sounds and eerie, child-like choirs ... and the insisting percussion on vintage-sounding skins makes me think of black big band-music from the 1970s ...
As "For the Love of God" enters my ears, I feel like a witness to the beauty of Spring in Berlin. I witness the world in passing, an experience of ephemeral beauty. The perception of beauty belongs to the traveler as much as to the sedentary. I long for
CHRISTMAS
You shall know them by perpetually being born, as an instance of God in Nature: "What is has neither come nor gone, but error moves," they say ... "Today we have changed eternities and what is past no novelty improves."
By the third song of Blood Inside, it is clear to me – as the last mind on the planet – that there is nothing left of the 1993-era Ulver. The orchestral dark rock herein belongs to a wholly other paradigm than that of black metal. The band's evolution from black metal to grand nocturnal pop can be understood thus: the grandeur of the former genre is also found within the latter. Grandeur: Vocal harmonies in several layers, string arrangments, huge percussion etc.
"Blind knowledge is working at useless ground, and crazy faith is living the dream of its liturgy," they say.
How can I speak of music when I ought to speak of God? Perhaps it is so, that by speaking of music one also speaks of God. The Christmas lyric is a poem by the Portugese poet Fernando Pessoa.
Let me quote the 27th proverb from The Marriage of Heaven and Hell by William Blake: "The roaring of lions, the howling of wolves, the raging of the stormy sea, and the destructive sword, are portions of eternity, too great for the eye of man."
I run. Through the veil of green leaves I see the Berliner Philharmonie where Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler, Edvard Grieg and Johannes Brahms conducted their works. Wilhelm Furtwängler took over the leadership in 1923; Herbert von Karajan lead the orchestra from 1955 to 1989. I cannot stand the thought of living in a city devoid of an orchestra. However, I do have an orchestra ringing in my ears; they perform the track called
BLINDED BY BLOOD
You shall know them by words spoken from the past to the future, a lullaby from a father to his son: "You are from the heart of it all ... the light from the love of the night," they sing ... and tears appear in my eyes with these words: "Crying from the inside - the fear ... my little one ... From the Earth It all ends"
The song begins with the mild chiming of bells, then a Moby-like sample of a resounding, black voice singing gospel, then Dead Can Dance-atmospheres ... haunting and resolutely beautiful. Grand rock. Black Grand Piano – "piano" in its Italian sense, meaning also "quiet", "tranquil".
Run again, along, entlang der Tiergartenstrasse; when crossing the Hofjägerallee I look at the Siegessäule, that proud monument designed in 1864, after the Preussian victory over Denmark the same year. By the inauguration of the Victory Column on September 2nd 1873, Prussia had also defeated Austria in the Austro-Prussian War (1866) and France in the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71). We look at the Victory Column with the eyes of convinced pacifists.
Do you hear the drums and cries of ancient war?
IT IS NOT SOUND
You shall know them by slowliness, by the precise and deliberate exertion of violence upon your ears and the emotions induced by dark music. "For the record, No one will understand What it is all about," they say ...
Granted. Granted. Grand Nocturnal Pop. Grand Rock of the Night.
"The dead name ... Backwards ... Amen"
"Animals! Werewolves, once among the most influential of the black metal family, now stray, strange birds," their press release reads. "ULVER is 33 years and counting backwards. They have the whole future behind them."
You shall know them by pretending to be the inversion of Jesus, Christ, the Saviour: "It just happened a long time ago ... 33 years ... Again and again and again ... What is it all about ... It is a promise of a lifetime ... Never recorded".
Again and again I run. At the Spreeufer I see young girls pique-niquing with white wine; I see old people parading their Nordic Walking poles, and when crossing the Corneliusbrücke, the bridge over the Spree, something marvelously curious: Llamas. They are animals I can only describe as noble, alert and stoic; while this description rings of 19th-century anthropomorphism, I challenge you: Bring Ulver next time you are in Tiergarten and go see those wonderful animals in the Zoologischer Garten. Every time I pass them I feel that we share some sort of existential community. The music of Ulver – now in my ears – seems to encompass the animal realm as much as the architecture of the GDR, the Third Reich or the blooming trees of Tiergarten. For once, tell me
THE TRUTH
You shall know them by their vocal lies in the ruthless pursuit of musical truth, by their attempt at creating confusion: "It is the two," they sing, "They turn the pages of the same book ... It means nothing to them ... The pages turned by the one ... Is turned back by the other."
Ladies and gentlemen: IT IS THE TRUTH. The topic for this year's festival. Do you dare to speak the truth, and nothing but the truth?
They are not Ulver. They are David Irving.
IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE QUEEN'S BENCH. Before:
The Hon. Mr. Justice Gray
B E T W E E N: DAVID JOHN CADWELL IRVING Claimant
-and-
PENGUIN BOOKS LIMITED, 1st Defendant
DEBORAH E. LIPSTADT DIVISION, 2nd Defendant
XIII. Findings on Justification. Excerpt: The charges which I have found to be substantially true include the charges that Irving has for his own ideological reasons persistently and deliberately misrepresented and manipulated historical evidence; that for the same reasons he has portrayed Hitler in an unwarrantedly favourable light, principally in relation to his attitude towards and responsibility for the treatment of the Jews; that he is an active Holocaust denier; that he is anti-semitic and racist and that he associates with right wing extremists who promote neo-Nazism.
They are not David Irving. They are Woody Allen.
(Two Woody quotes)
a. "On the plus side, death is one of the few things that can be done just as easily as lying down."
b. "More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly."
You shall know them by their claim to that which once was known as True Norwegian Black Metal: "They know it by heart ... By the nothing inside it ..."
The song is a fine mess of insisting percussion and strings, choirs, trumpet samples and melancholy synth lines. Kris' layered vocals are mixed with funny cartoonish effects. It is the truth, curious and comical.
I continue my run past the llamas in Berlin and end up, mysteriously, on the shores of Norway, among the wooden houses of Haugesund. The salty seaside air awakens my brain, as I pass decaying Jugendstil villas, wharves, cross two huge bridges before ending up at the column dedicated to Harald Hårfagre ("Harald Fairhair", who after victory in the Battle of Hafrsfjord in the year 872 unified Norway into one kingdom.) From that magnificent viewpoint, standing on the Viking king's burial mound, next to the stone column placed on top of it, I look out on the North Sea, admiring the grey sheets of sea and sky merging in the horizon. I am all alone. I am with Ulver. Then two visitors. I talk to a black couple of engineers from North Carolina, who just moved to Haugesund to work in the oil industry. They seem to take pleasure in this bit of Viking sightseeing. An ambulance with wailing sirens pass. We are
IN THE RED
You shall know them by their travels into new domains of sounds and sense: "Out of nature ... Something bloody ... A body," they sing, with echoing strings mirroring the cold emptiness of hospital corridors. "Hospital doors open," they sing, "a great white".
The dire hospital song terminates in a jazz tune, with trumpets, clarinets and vibraphone engaging in merry big band battle. I would have loved to play this music to the young man you will see soon in a certain YouTube video clip ...
"Hey, dude ... are you stuck in 1993, or what? This is the music you will be playing in 2009, NOT the unholy Satanic fistfucking black metal (or whatever else it is) you believe that you will be playing in the future ..."
The future is now. I'm lovin' it.
From the Haraldshaugen monument I run further, as in an Olympic commercial from 1994, to the small Norwegian town of Lillehammer, located in Oppland with 25070 inhabitants counted in 2004. Although I, in theory at least, ought to be listening to the song "In the Red", all of a sudden I find myself speeding through the forest listening to Ulvers primitive black metal album from 1996, Nattens Madrigal, while running upwards along the waterfall called Himmelriksfossen. It is a splendid, sunny day in the end of May. Spring has finally come to Norway, and nature celebrates Winter's departure with a huge party of singing birds, budding trees and blooming flowers. As I make my way up the forest path, the noise of the waterfall merges with the blazing "Of Wolf and Fear", so that I can hardly distinguish the one from the other. I become aware of the deep similarities between those two sound sources, one a product of nature and the other a product of culture; The True Norwegian Black Metal can be compared to a waterfall, falling freely and unrestrained, out of necessity. The riffs are always played with open strings and at blazing speed, the drums a violent million litres of water coming at you blindly. The screams may be likened to the water of Himmelriksfossen crashing down on the stones below. The movement of TNBM shares its necessity with the waterfall; both are unavoidable forces behaving according to the law of gravity. Do not quote me on this.
On top of the waterfall. It now seems that I am out of breath and out of music. Hence, I will pause Blood Inside for now and parade the trivia machine instead, by recounting the number of names by which I know the chief wolf. In the first Ulver album, I knew him as Garm. In my unhappy days in Oslo (Ulver's Themes from William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven & Hell era), he went by the name Kris around town. By the release of Metamorphosis EP, I think it was, he started appearing as Trickster G. When he was kind of enough to lay down vocals for the Solefald track "Loki Trickster God", his email address was Storeulv, ("Big Wolf") and the sender name Christophorus. In Blood Inside and Shadows of the Sun his name is Kristoffer G. Rygg. Thus, His Holiness is known under a fine panoply of aliases.
In this piece of seemingly irrelevant trivia, I find a property essential to the Ulver identity: playfulness, the joy of appearing under different names and masks.
What is tried is not true, but trite.
However, contrast this with the following statement made by Kris to Norweigan newspaper Morgenbladet in 2008, after the release of Shadows of the Sun (my translation):
"There are many things about the music business that we are uncomfortable with. You have to play theatre, kind of, wear a mask and act in special ways in order to get media attention. We are not very skilled at this. Wearing some kind of public persona (or personality) is so unnatural, I cannot relate to it. In that respect, none of us in Ulver should have been musicians. We should have done something completely different. We are good only in one segment of doing music, namely doing music as such."
The last line ought to be quoted in Norwegian, as it translates only difficultly: "For det er bare ett segment av det å drive med musikk som vi gjør bra, og det er musikk i egenskap av musikk."
In conclusion, I would like to share the following with you:
Thanks a True Norwegian Black Metal bunch!
PRESS RELEASE FROM THE NORWEGIAN FESTIVAL OF LITERATURE FEBRUARY 12 2009
The Norwegian Festival of Literature proudly presents:
ULVER LIVE AT MAIHAUGSALEN, LILLEHAMMER, SATURDAY MAY 30 2009
Once amongst the pioneers of Norwegian black metal, now living legends of dark experimental music, ULVER are today one of Norway's most acclaimed international artists. While remaining something of a secret treasure back home, a long series of strong releases, most recently the album Shadows of the Sun (2007), has earned them a unique status worldwide.
ULVER have since their first album been exclusively a studio band. This being their first live performance in 15 years, the concert at Lillehammer is a historic event.
A statement from the band: Last year Mr. Stig Sæterbakken approached us with an offer to play live at the Norwegian Festival of Literature, and after long consideration we have decided to accept the invitation. We go to the job with great humility and horror. Ulver, Oslo, February 11 2009.
NOTE: Limited number of tickets. Reservation at www.billettservice.no.
ULVER CONTACT
Stig Sæterbakken
stigsae@online.no
+ 47 41 64 55 37
FESTIVAL CONTACT
Endre Ruset
endre.ruset@litteraturfestival.no
+ 47 61 28 89 18
The Maihaugen Concert Hall
The Norwegian Festival of Literature
Times are changing. Jørn just got married, godspeed, and G. has been doing outdoor work at one of Oslo's largest cemeteries. The funeral services dept., Gravferdsetaten, remember. Gardening, six feet under, while Tore has been setting up recording facilities for the fine criminals residing in the Oslo State Penitentiary. So it goes.
Aside from God and the dead and the dangerous, and as you may have noticed, we have committed a cover for C+C Records' quintuple CD celebration of TAFKAP's 50th birthday. Instead of saying thank you, the little man threatened to sue. The world is indeed an ungrateful place. Prince is not our familiar, but we think the song is alright. Siri Stranger, Wyclef's favourite girl, is with us on this one. Some soul, you know. Other artists range from Maja Ratkje, Nils Petter Molvær and Sidsel Endresen, King Midas, Kaada, Susanna and the Magical Orchestra, to premium producers Stargate and busty glamour girl Lene Alexandra. More info here.
We have helping hands in two songs on our friends Alkaline Trio's new album, Agony & Irony. It was released today by Epic Records. Congratulations fellas. We've also done a remix for Mindless Self Indulgence. Pay for it. And in mode, we will do one for Genghis Tron too.
We now look much forward to locking ourselves up in the studio and not having to worry about anything else. A new opus magnum/minimum. Please be patient.
Ulver, underground, Oslo. July 1 2008.
Interviews and reviews of SHADOWS OF THE SUN here. And more to come.
The sun is turning, and as the shadows begin to fade we trust you all have at long last received your packages. As most of you know we did not receive the LPs before early November. We would like to apologise once again for the delay and thank you for your patience. Only a few of you have been on our backs about it, and while we understand, we'd like to emphasise that we too have lost a great deal of time and money on this shit. It happens. And life goes on.
As you all know, by now we are filthy rich and expanding the business. Just look at this stunning new artifact:
This beauty is, believe it or not, in stock and will dispatch immediately. Please note that it is from the golden section – NOK 500 / EUR 62 / USD 89 – and only for the ULVER dipsomaniac. A total of 200 have been made; when they are gone, they are gone. Order here.
It is likely to become the most useful band merchandise we will ever make, tragic as we are. Salut.
On the exclusive note, we should also mention that our US partner The End Records is now pushing a ltd. ed. of the Shadows vinyl. One hundred copies in a wooden box with a varnish and a branding, in tandem with a t-shirt and postcards designed by our brother-in-the-hood Stephen O'Malley. Here.
The year of the Rat is on.
JESTER RECORDS, December 22 2007.
Many of you have been waiting for sound, and we are sorry for the silence. We needed to be alone, without the hustle and bustle of the living. We are uncomfortable with the world, the industry and our place. We have been working, sluggishly, well aware we could end up with nothing. Nonetheless we believe we have succeeded in giving our fears some kind of form. SHADOWS OF THE SUN, our 7th full-length album, is finished and will be released October 1st. We feel it is our most personal record to date. Low-key, dark, and tragic. As we are.
ULVER, Oslo, July 13 2007.
"Dark and tragic" might be fitting adjectives for Ulver's 14-year career, but "low-key" is definitely a more recent development. For even though it might be hard to believe it when you listen to the soft-spoken new album, Ulver were once a seminal black metal band. They even have the name (Ulver translates as "Wolves") and a trilogy of folklore-inspired metal to prove it.
But even in a scene that sent shockwaves around the world, Ulver were outsiders. While other black metallers were "slaves to the one with horns", Ulver were inspired by Thomas Kingo, a 17th century composer of psalms.
As the band matured, their influences became even more eclectic. Techno auteurs Autechre rubbed shoulders with visionary mystic William Blake. Ulver have released acoustic folk albums and instrumental techno records, raw metal and industrial soundscapes, and they have composed music for films.
I'd like to say that they are equally comfortable with whatever medium they choose, but that would be a lie. Ulver never seem comfortable—they seem restless, longing for some far-off horizon or hidden world only they can see. This makes every new release from Ulver interesting because you not only have to ask "is it good?" (with Ulver, that's a redundant question) but "what kind of music is it?"
So, what kind of music is this? The boys already told you it's "dark and tragic", but while being weighed down with the world, they have managed to produce their most accessible album to date. This might sound like a paradox, but Ulver thrive on such paradoxes. Their fears have been given a shapely form indeed, capable, perhaps, of bringing a little comfort to some.
Soothing electronics and natural percussion provide the basis for Garm's warm vocals, singing songs of loss and disillusion. While the lyrics provide little hope, the music carries a note of quiet faith. It sees Ulver abandon many of their grand concepts, to focus on music and human emotion. Contributions by world-renowned thereminist Pamelia Kurstin help make SHADOWS OF THE SUN a piece of rare beauty.
You want comparisons? SHADOWS OF THE SUN sees Ulver borrow some pigments from David Sylvian's palette, using it to transport their own visions onto the canvas. Incidentally, Austrian audio abstracter Christian Fennesz, an associate of Sylvian, also help make this album what it is.
Other comparions could be made. The band are avowed fans of Coil. Nick Cave, maybe. But such comparisons only cheapen, because Ulver really don't sound like anybody you already know. They are the perfect strangers.
I'd call them "lone wolves", but I've promised the band to lay off the wolf jokes.
DIDRIK SØDERLIND, Fall 2007.
We have received a note from Kenneth Anger claiming that we are libeling him.
The IT IS NOT SOUND video is of course not directed by Kenneth Anger. The set design is of course not by Albrecht Dürer. Being who we are, we assume that people read between the lines.
Remember Gloria Swanson? Really Ken, who's the cranky old bitch?
I have a problem with censorship [...]. They don't seem to want to take too many risks with living people. Or else I've got to tone down or rewrite some things. – Kenneth Anger
Please re-read our press release. And between us: Thank you for your autograph.
ULVER, Cairo, November 2005.
Interviews for BLOOD INSIDE, from Atomic Threat, Zero Tolerance, Terrorizer, Musique Machine and Modern Fix, here.
Animals! Werewolves, once among the most influential of the black metal family, now stray, strange birds.
Perdition City from year 2000 was ULVER's last proper album. KERRANG! ranking it top ten that year and writing: "This ain't rock'n roll. This is evolution on such a grand scale that most bands wouldn't even be able to wrap their tiny little minds around it."
A series of EPs and a couple of soundtracks followed. In 2003 ULVER marked their ten years of metamorphosis with a remix CD featuring household subversives such as Fennesz, Stars of the Lid, Third Eye Foundation and Merzbow. ULVER has been nominated to the Norwegian Grammy Awards, Spellemannsprisen, twice, in different categories. They have continued scoring motion pictures, most notably a joint soundtrack with singer/songwriter Tom McRae for the multiple award-winning Uno last year. Only Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter got more visits.
Their last release was the EP A Quick Fix of Melancholy. The band described the thing as chamber music for the fucked up. Some dude responded: "Ulver seems to have tapped into a musical vein that not many are aware of. This reminds me of The Nutcracker Suite type of holiday cartoons being thrust through the imagination of a mental patient at the local institution of your choice."
Nuts or not: ULVER is a tough crack.
"You could file it under spoken word, electronica, metal, pop, or art songs, and be right every time. It's Ulverific!" (The Village Voice)
Now BLOOD INSIDE. It's really very good. They did it themselves, and got away with a little help from legendary producer/mixer/artist Ronan Chris Murphy: King Crimson's preferred audio pilot and collaborator with ladies and gents such as Steve Morse (Deep Purple), Terry Bozzio (Frank Zappa), Tony Levin (Peter Gabriel, John Lennon, Pink Floyd), Joan LaBarbara (Philip Glass Ensemble, Steve Reich), as well as younger blood from Tool to Ministry.
ULVER is 33 years and counting backwards. They have the whole future behind them.
Just think about it. Would you have more kids with laptops unprepared for droning metal storms and featuring one of them Sonic Youth's covered by a perfectly bland art design out every day at Hippsville Records? Then go fuck yourself.
It is hard. We know. Very advanced. Very narcissistic. A bona fide blow in the head. Lights out.
ULVER is in the hospital. They are really sick. Operating in the red, making wrong calls, damn pranksters. And they have a lot of instruments. Be patient.
Video: starring His Holiness John Paul II aka Trickster G. with spastic paralysis. Set design by Gustave Doré and Albrecht Dürer with a Kenneth Anger impersonator behind the camera.
We give you ULVER's BLOOD INSIDE. Certified and sanctified. For gods and dogs alike. The first 2000 in red velvet and numbered inside.
Due to reorganisation the boys are now stationed in a labyrinth outside Cairo. They are shifting shapes to come.
JESTER RECORDS, June 2005.
October and we're done with the film business for now. UNO has become a major success in Norway, with over 200 000 visitors the first month, and it just won a prize at the EuropaCinema festival in Italy. A commercial soundtrack has been released by Bonnier Amigo Music Norway. Forget it; we will push our own via Jester in due time.
We just have to release the Blood inside. It is running cold and the brain is receiving it and interpreting and transmitting again and again and again. It is making us sick. A baroque thing, beyond all good taste.
FOR THE RECORD
NO ONE WILL UNDERSTAND
WHAT IT IS ALL ABOUT
THE DEAD NAME
BACKWARDS
AMEN
IT JUST HAPPENED
A LONG TIME AGO
33 YEARS
AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN
WHAT IS IT ALL ABOUT
IT IS A PROMISE
OF A LIFETIME
NEVER RECORDED
In between: A collaboration with our long time friend Stephen O'Malley and his SUNN O))) has taken place. The result is a 15 min. epic commisioned for a Swedish radio broadcast, and it will be on SUNN O)))'s bastard White 4LP Box scheduled for spring 2005.
We've also done a down-tempo Strange ways for the upcoming KISS tribute album Gods of Thunder. Released next year by VME in cooperation with the Norwegian Kiss Army, featuring among others TURBONEGRO and GLUECIFER. KISS is king.
Roll baroque.
ULVER, October 20 2004.
Los Angeles was strange. Blood Inside, gold outside. Friggin' Frank Zappa's guitar player, Mike Keneally, ended up going mad over our record. We are proud to probably not use much of it. We also had Tom McRae with band over for a day of improvising for the film UNO. Some sort of moon unit we were in Ronan's own Woodstock, with pianos, acoustic guitars, cello, violin and of course Rhodes. We have four hours on record which will be edited down for an "unplugged" disc accompanying the final film score. Still in the making. UNO opens the
Haugesund International Film Festival in August.
The score for Mona J. Hoel's film entitled Salto, salmiakk og kaffe is done. Featuring Sámi siren Mari Boine and percussionist Marilyn Mazur, who's played with Miles Davis for crying out loud. We make a CD for you.
Oh beautiful harvest.
ULVER, June 14 2004.
Encore: Spellemannsprisen, the Norwegian Grammy Awards, 2003. We are electronica. Last year we were open. Next year we will be gone. Unless all labels collapse. Live on Norwegian TV2 February 28 2004. We are away. California.
Ronan Chris Murphy will mix our new album in his Veneto West studio L.A. He is the man for work with King Crimson among others. Blood Inside is the title. This fall. All falls.
Back march we start working on two feature film assignments. No rest. Wicked we. Mona Hoel and Freedom From Fear is one. The other is Aksel Hennie's UNO, with the melancholic British singer/songwriter Tom McRae on a joint score. Other projects in negotiation.
Impending.
We hail the Lion.
ULVER, January 28 2004.
A Quick Fix of Melancholy ep and the Svidd Neger soundtrack are now out. We are working dedicatedly on our next full-length release, with the Heart album as working title, replacing the utopian enterprise. Oblivion to you all.
ULVER, September 17 2003.
Happy birthday. Change hands. A head.
Admitted and circumcised. By friends. Thanks.
Haywire lycanthropy. Wolves evolve.
ULVER 1993-2003: 1st decade in the machines is complete. Remixes by ULVER, Alexander Rishaug, Information, Third Eye Foundation, Upland, Bogdan Raczynski, Martin Horntveth, Neotropic, Stars of the Lid, Fennesz, Pita, Jazzkammer, V/Vm, Merzbow. Some previously announced artists/mixes have been left out; there's a play time and a time to deliver. Out March.
A Quick Fix of Melancholy ep: 3 tracks over 30 min. reflecting the title. G. on vocals on VOWELS by the Canadian author Christian Bök. Out April.
Svidd Neger is slightly delayed. Premiere late May / early June.
ULVER, February 12 2003.
Lyckantropen Themes has been nominated to Spellemannsprisen 2002, the Norwegian Grammy Awards, genre Open Class. Other nominees are Mari Boine, Jaga Jazzist, Nils Petter Molvær and Sidsel Endresen with Bugge Wesseltoft. The soundtrack will unlikely bring us the award in this company, none the less we appreciate the nomination. The show is broadcasted on Norwegian national television February 22.
ULVER, January 7 2003.
The score for Svidd neger is almost done and will be released on Jester in parallel with the film premiere March 2003. The music is more elaborate than the abstract minimalism of Lyckantropen.
The string remake of Nattens Madrigal is of course delayed - no further friggin' comment. The original havoc is now re-released on vinyl by the Dutch Displeased Records; on CD by the Italian Avant Garde Records.
From the fashion wing: A merchandise deal with UK's Plastichead is in place. Perdition City and Lyckantropen T-shirts are available now.
JESTER RECORDS, December 12 2002.
ULVER has been employed for the soundtrack to the upcoming Norwegian anti-Dogma outburst Svidd neger, a 1.5 million USD budgeter hitting the big screen spring 2003. The scenery is absurd Norway in splendour; the music will be all pomp and circumstance. More information at www.sviddneger.no.
Some horror film enthusiasts have also approached us for our competence as true servants of darkness and evil. However we don't sell our souls cheap these days. We'll see, it all comes down to hard cash.
ULVER, July 20 2002.
New releases scheduled for 2003 to mark ULVER's ten years in metabusiness:
1. A collection of transformations from the ULVER catalogue by artists such as Christian Fennesz, Jazzkammer, Kevin Drumm, Kid 606, Martin Horntveth (Jaga Jazzist), Merzbow, Neotropic, Pita, Bogdan Raczynski, Alexander Rishaug, Stars of the Lid, Third Eye Foundation, Upland, V/Vm and others. Both classic and current ULVER material will be remade through contemporary noise, glitch and electronic frolic.
2. A new album, Utopian Enterprises, with texts and images in one grand package (the size depending on our sponsors). A return to vocals and violations with maximum manipulation and understanding of audio technology, beauty and - predicting the misunderstanding - pretence. We've killed too many darlings to please the police. When hurt, we reflect, the failure. Fuck you.
From the visual wing: ULVER is currently employed for a soundtrack to the Swedish film Lyckantropen, directed by Steve Ericsson (trailer download at www.lyckantropen.com). The beast in man, in different neighbourhoods, different forms, but all the same: Awakening.
From the noise wing: An ULVER remix off Merzbow's Frog album will be released through Misantrophic Agenda (www.holyterror.com/misanthropicagenda).
From the silence wing: The two post-Perdition city improv-glitch-EPs (limited and sold out) are re-released as one disc on the American indie label Black Apple Records (www.blackapplerecords.com) under the title Teachings in silence.
The ambient string remake of Nattens Madrigal is a drag. We promise to complete it within summer and release it through Jester (www.jester-records.com) this fall. If Century Media fancies our liquidation, contact the ULVER finance department at bestseller@blake.com.
ULVER, from the March 15 2002 press release.
Everything falls. World history is an endless process of failure and falling, forced forward by opposed powers. In this twilight ULVER hovers, somewhere between Beast and Man, noise and silence, the golden summits and the dead centre.
Their first fall was into the satanic metal scene emerging in Norway in the beginning of the 1990's. Their songs were manifestations of rebellious romanticism, combining elements from Old Norse folk music with the primal brutality of black metal. The first three albums form a trilogy exploring the sinister aspects of Norwegian folklore. The beastliness begins with Bergtatt (1994), is balanced with the all acoustic, neo-folk album Kveldssanger (1995), before returning with even more impact on Nattens Madrigal (1996), where the pure anger and anguish is a consequence of the quintessential lycanthropic lyrics.
ULVER's uncompromising and enigmatic attitude made the band one of the most influential of the Norwegian subculture. Nonetheless they recognized that these early endeavors were stepping stones rather than conclusions - a thought that most bands of the scene did not care or dare to think. ULVER has always been in radical opposition to all forms of restriction and habit. "I think we quite early discarded all convulsive attempts at being dark and evil in any common sense of these words", states G., "When it comes to darkness, I find it much more fascinating when applied subtly."
ULVER fell further with their fourth album, Themes from William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell (1998, trick001). This double CD is an epic recital of the book where Blake evokes the power of imagination against the restrictions of the human ratio. Musically it explores a wide range of sound disciplines, including ambient soundscapes, industrial, cinematic jazz and rock/metal hybrids.
While some genre purists were taken aback by the violation of their boundaries, a new audience now discovered the band. ULVER started interacting with a broader range of people on the cultural fringe: modern heretical philosophers and musicians, writers on conspiracy, chaos magicians and the likes. In Norway the band has been involved in books, movies and multimedia projects, enjoying rising acclaim from a downright diverse lot. ULVER posters started appearing in everything from dumb smash box movies such as Senseless to the TV series Sopranos. The controversial director of the motion pictures Kids and Gummo, Harmony Korine, recently commented, alluding to The Marriage of Heaven and Hell: "There's a real lineage from a composer like Wagner to a band like ULVER". This confirms ULVER's outstanding status - a status that has resulted in proposals from world-class engineers for production of future albums, remix requests from other musicians, as well as invitations to multimedia projects.
Then followed the aptly titled Metamorphosis ep (1999, trick006), a dark cultivation of the electronic experiments introduced on the Blake album. The EP served as a foretaste of what awaits us now: Perdition City. ULVER's fifth full-length album shows the band retreating even further, into observations of beauty and decay and the loss of innocence. However disillusioned the band may appear today, there are still these keen visions, still these withdrawn and picturesque atmospheres. Subtitled Music to an interior film, this is indeed music to evoke images in the mind.
ULVER belongs to a rare breed of musicians who fall with strict consequence on album after album. And Perdition City is a stunning manifestation of all this within a framework of artistic perfection and mature aestheticism. It is also an album that will convince those in search for modern and sophisticated music without hearing the wings of angels and demons beating beneath.
TIMO KÖLLING, Perdition City Press Release 2000. |
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