deaf center . pale ravine (cd type records, 2005)

Deaf Center are two Norwegian friends Erik Skodvin and Otto Totland. Old school friends, they finally decided to write music together and ended up creating the phenomenal 'Neon City' EP.
'Pale Ravine' is the long awaited full-length realization of Erik Skodvin and Otto Totland's musical ideals. Taking up where 'Neon City' left off with it's epic sound collages and textural soundscapes, 'Pale Ravine' manages to provide a sound altogether more Lynchian and grimly cinematic. Using influences from further back in their lives, the two Norwegian musicians have looked deep into their own family histories to piece together a dusty and nostalgic epic.
Inspired by old silent 8mm film reels, the historical architecture around them and the call of the alluring Norwegian landscape, the duo set out armed with microphones to record whatever they could to capture these feelings. Sounds from battered old records, cash registers, broken machines and a half-dead piano were all blended into the mix to add a warm, homely depth to the recordings.
One of the most stand-out influences on 'Pale Ravine' is theatre, or at least the romance of all things theatrical. Not so much theatre in all its pretentious excesses, but the childhood apprehensiveness and the sinister undercurrents. From the muffled ticket booth ambience of 'Lobby' to the solemn dance of 'White Lake' it all appears draped in thick billowing velvet. The dense narrative technique the duo employs is almost like a reverse to a silent film - the soundtrack is provided to be accompanied by the imaginative visuals of the listener.
'Pale Ravine' is an album which again manages to blend elements of classical music with electronic music, yet there is something decidedly different which sets it apart from the competition. While there are elements that can be compared with contemporaries such as Max Richter, Marsen Jules or Ryan Teague - Deaf Center is altogether more other-worldly, darker and ultimately very rewarding.
técnica de cut/copy/paste aplicada directamente do press release da editora para este blog.

música inquietante, nostálgica e desafiadora, só um enorme esforço de memória me permite recordar outro disco de electrónica "abstracta" - i.e. idêntica forma de dizer "sem beats" - editado nos últimos tempos, com tamanha capacidade para provocar sensações de alguma forma equivalentes.
'pale ravine' assume assim uma função paliativa, numa altura em que a necessidade de diminuir a velocidade das bpms até ao ponto em que estas praticamente deixam de existir começava a assumir contornos obrigatórios.