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Runhild Gammelsaeter, "Aplicon"
With a track record collaborating with the likes of Sunn O))), Thorr’s Hammer, and other dark luminaries, the sound of this disc is not at all unexpected. However, while her collaborations strayed more towards the metal end of things, this first (and entirely solo) disc is decidedly more eclectic, and for that reason perhaps more frightening than any of her other appearances.
The disc is front loaded with the more jarring and frightening moments. It opens extremely frightening and, while not letting up, begins to lessen the demonic grab by the end of the disc. Opening track “Collapse-Lifting of the Veil” sounds like a demonic possession must feel. The piece is a constant battle between fragmented stabbing noisy guitar drone and gentle, acoustic strumming, just as the vocals alternate between soft folk singing and deranged, Linda Blair growls and shrieks. The follower, “Expanding Universe,” has a similar template, but of a more electronic flavor with synthetic noises and a split between ambient passages and harsh electronic noise outbursts.
Other tracks during the first half follow this disorienting mix of the beautiful and the beastly. Guitar noise, indecipherable noises, gentle vocals and spoken word elements balanced with growled, inhuman vocals, sometimes pure, other times electronically treated to be even less human.
“Incubation” and “Birth” both mark a slightly less terrifying turn of events…a deep heartbeat like pulse and calmer more restrained vocals, often pitch shifted to various levels make for a slightly lighter shade of black. I say this because the tracks still have a power electronics style synth drone, and “Love” is based over an awkward nauseating rhythm, and the acoustic guitar elements are occasionally interrupted by jarring blasts of distorted noise.
The unexpected blasts come in the form of violent, tortured screams on “Dying”, appropriately enough, which even upstage the noise blasts that punctuate the guitar drone. The final piece, “Void: Empty Spaces Between Filaments” ends in a restrained, but sinister way: layered vocals that are evil sounding and also relatively restrained, at some points the spoken word parts are even, thrillingly enough, reading physics equations.
As a whole, Amplicon is one of the most schizophrenic releases I’ve heard this year. There are elements of folk, black metal, and pure noise in here, and with its overall cut-and-paste structure, one element is just as likely to pop out as the next. It’s jarring, frightening, and tenser than any horror film I’ve seen in the past few years.
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