S.C.44. STAR TURBINE

‘EQUILIBRIUM’

Limited edition boxset of 100, 2 x 3″ Discs in black sleeves , postcards ,

and mini booklet.

TRACKS :

Phase 1

01. Summer Haze (humid space)
02. Heat Wave (non-ionizing radiation blues)
03. Condenser (molecular cluster)
04. Chromatic Underwear (polyatomic molecules)
05. Alien (self-replication)

Phase 11

01. Slow Acceleration
02. Gravitational Wave Detector

***

Star Turbine is the long-distance duo of Sindre Bjerga from Stavanger, Norway and Claus Poulsen from Copenhagen, Denmark. They have never met.

 Sindre Bjerga is a very active live musician, touring 2-3 times evey year since 2006 all over Europe, and have released more than 200 records, mostly known from the hyper-productive duo Bjerga/Iversen. Lately he has mainly been playing more solo gigs, including improvised voice as a new element in the mix.

 Claus Poulsen is a ”formal” multiinstrument musician as well as noise improviser and music producer, who enjoys working in very different music styles, and  has worked for 8 years in Sound ensemble Alarm112, and now with Small Things on Sundays (amongst many other projects).

The long-distance collaboration seems to work very well, producing 3 records in the first few months. Bjerga and Poulsen have different musical styles, sound and instrumentation, but as Star Turbine these differences seem to balance out to form a creative forcefield. They share an interest in experimental music and improvisation and have worked in the drone, noise and ambient genre,  …

 Equilibrium is the condition of a system in which competing influences are balanced. Equilibrium is also the first of  Star Turbine’s work to be released –  comes in a box with two 3” CD’s. Phase 1 starts off with a string of powerful drones rising in intensity, and Phase 11 ,  contrasting it with two longer ambient pieces – in equilibrium.

Released  09/12/2012

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REVIEW :

Star Turbine is a long-distance collaboration between ubiquitous force-for-the-good Sindre Bjerga and similarly busy multi-instrumentalist Claus Poulsen.  The first of the two discs contains five shortish tracks of droning atmospherics augmented by guitarish scrapes and found sounds dropped in, looped and left to abrade each other.  Whilst neither dubby nor minimal, these tracks contain a convincing evocation of space.  Whether this is abyssal blackness or infinite sky depends, I guess, on the mood of the listener.

The second disc contains two long tracks that explore similar territory but do so in a darker, more circumspect way.  The emptiness remains but the agoraphobia is pitched a little higher in the mix.  Could that hissing sound be a leak in your spacesuit?  As with many of Andy’s releases, the compelling depth and mystery of this music is revealed on repeat listens.  It stands up to scrutiny, in fact it benefits from it.

The track titles invoke science terminology – ‘wave detector’, ‘molecular cluster’ etc. – in the same way that early techno used to do: to add a futuristic sheen rather than to refer to anything concrete.  I suspect this is knowingly tongue-in-cheek as the game is given away both by the title of the track ‘Chromatic Underwear (Polyatomic Molecules)’ and by the burst of muted ‘Jupiter Jazz’ style joy-synth that makes a surprise appearance at its conclusion.

Whilst the track titles can be put to one side, the concept of ‘equilibrium’ has more interesting structural consequences.  This is not equilibrium in the sense of the solid-state, unchanging drones championed by, say, the underrated band midwich.  This is equilibrium maintained by the delicate balancing of competing forces, made possible by a combination of seemingly coincidental factors, the removal of any one of which would send the marbles crashing down like a game of cosmic Kerplunk.  There are various ‘quantity theory’ games that can be played by combining the elements of this release: are the two discs in equilibrium?  The tracks on each disc?  Each track within itself?  Over the whole track length or does every moment have its own balance?  It is an enormously impressive act, like a snail crawling up the blade of a knife.

A beautifully packaged object that will repay your attention many times over.  Need I go on?

By Rob Hayler at Radio Free Midwich … Full article  here

Further  review  at A Closer Listen

Purchase   here

listen to or  purchase  as  a digital download  here

~ by STRIATE CORTEX on December 1, 2011.