steering clear of the mainstream
since 2001

june 2010

review
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info opinion

Robert Horton & Sindre Bjerga

"Broken Wisdom on Its Wild Lone" CDR

Striate Cortex

Genre: grandiose, glacial drone

El Cerrito, California & Stavanger, Norway

April 2010

Royal, shimmering drone which constructs vast polar landscapes in one's mind (see cover) -- or, perhaps, limitless, moonlit desert. Robert Horton (Egghatcher) on gong and computer, Sindre Bjerga (Bjerga/Iversen, Fibo Trespo) on synths and tapes, and Caren Ohlson on abstract vocals. Constructed via intercontinental collaboration between El Cerrito, California and Stavanger, Norway. As always, the music moves slowly, and reverberates glisteningly to hypnotic effect. My prior exposure to Bjerga's work is limited (though his tome-like discography renders just about everyone a novice), and in Horton's case I'm a complete virgin, but this tremendous composition is an astute example of all that's positive about the drone scene. Although Broken Wisdom's sonic progression is glacial even by the genre's standards, one can't dispute the appeal of this momentous forty-minute head-trip, its dynamics sublimely grandiose, its timbres superb in a charred, apocalyptic sort of way. And despite being pieced together between both sides of the Atlantic, this has the cohesion and personality of a live collaboration.

sindre's myspace

Sindre Bjerga with some other folks:

Michael Tau

[Vitals: 1 tracks, limited to 100 copies, distributed by the label, released 2009]