Top Bar
Musique Machine Logo Home ButtonReviews ButtonArticles ButtonBand Specials ButtonAbout Us Button
SearchGo Down
Search for  
With search mode in section(s)
And sort the results by
show articles written by  
 Review archive:  # a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z

FNS - Self titled [Miasmah Recordings - 2010]

Like the oft-quoted epigram, Norwegian home recording artist Fredrik Ness Sevendal sets about his musical journeys without concern for the destination - it’s the getting there that matters. His sound, presented here by Miasmah reissuing his debut CDr of 2005, is based around the most minimal of melodies played on acoustic or electric guitars whose spare notes are steadily and earnestly repeated to build celestial, cyclical incantations supplemented by subtle electronics.

Tracks like album opener, ‘Silence to say hello’ and ‘Wooden leg’ keep a steadily strummed acoustic guitar at their centre while a layer of gentle, finger-picked refrains play on top as electronic effects sink, fizz and dissolve in the flow. Despite expectations to the contrary, the lack of melodic progression casts a ritualistic shadow over the proceedings, taking the expected pastoral pastime into a dark forest of hidden behaviours.

This moodiness is emphasised further on the electric guitar-driven pieces, ‘Sappélur’ and ‘I think she’s asleep’, whose droning layers form a dirge on which wavering notes are hung that twist and wail through the fog bringing to mind the cosmic energy on parts of Hawkwind’s ‘Space Ritual’. The original CDr closed with ‘Dream’, a frozen moment in an imagined desert from a spaghetti western, but this reissue doesn’t end there - it is augmented by a new extended piece recorded last year – ‘Flaggermusvingers vift i dimmet’. This shows Sevendal sticking to the formula but with greater confidence and focus than before. Steadily and unhurried, a buzzing drone accompanied by just a few plucked notes builds its presence, where the odd change in notation is thrown into sharp contrast, as the intensity ebbs and flows before crashing to an end, leaving rippling guitar notes in its wake.

The qualities of the music captured on FNS are as much a testament to process as to proficiency. Repetition in the compositions is diffracted in the mix by judicious use of echo throughout ensuring that while the notes remain the same the flow is constantly moving. In their dedication to repetition, these rich sonorities exploit the idiosyncrasies of somatic play as opposed to the sterile purity of automated loops. By celebrating such impurities, Sevendal has created a textural, hypnotic approach that has suggestions of psychedelia and UK folk within its shimmering, raga-like iterations.

Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5Rating: 4 out of 5

Russell Cuzner
Latest Reviews

FNS - Self titled
Like the oft-quoted epigram, Norwegian home recording artist Fredrik Ness Sevendal sets about his musical journeys without concern for the destination - it’s...
190324   Pierre Jodlowski - Séries fo...
180324   José María Sánchez-Verdú - K...
180324   Celer - Cursory Asperses
180324   Burial Ground/ Nights of Terr...
150324   Uncodified - Erased People
150324   The Residents - Secret Show (...
130324   Dagr - Dagr (ltd-theatrical/ ...
130324   Ignaz Schick & Oliver Steidle...
120324   Math - Utterblight
120324   OdNu + Ümlaut - Abandoned Spaces
Latest Articles

Sutcliffe No More - Normal Everyd...
Sutcliffe No More are a British two-piece bringing together Kevin Tomkins & Paul Taylor. Formed in 2021, it’s the spin-off project/ next sonic step...
290224   Sutcliffe No More - Normal Ev...
100124   Occlusion - The Operation Is...
181223   Best Of 2023 - Music, Sound &...
051223   Powerhouse Films - Of Magic, ...
181023   IO - Of Sound, Of Art, Of Exp...
210923   Lucky Cerruti - Of Not so Fri...
290823   The Residents - The Trouble W...
110723   Yotzeret Sheydim Interview - ...
250523   TenHornedBeast - Into The Dee...
050523   Bill Morroni - The Trials & ...
Go Up
(c) Musique Machine 2001 -2023. Twenty two years of true independence!! Mail Us at questions=at=musiquemachine=dot=comBottom