By M of Damned By Light. October 16th, 2010.
Hjorten is a pretty productive solo-project from Sweden. This is the second release I've heard from it this far, the other one being the more recent Bleak-EP. As I stated in the aforementioned review, the artist executes a broad scale of different styles. On this EP the style is a mix of noise and ambient, based on field recordings; "Travel" consists of a passing train and people waiting for it, and the second one features an escalator as it's sound source.
The nine-minuter "Tracks" has some pretty great elements in it; the noisy screech of the train tracks is looped using varying speeds, and mashed together with some calmer rumbling of the train arriving from the distance, with the talking people adding a human touch to the otherwise very mechanically progressing track. The samples are layered and placed next to each other in a pretty crude way for the most part, and the loops lack warmth as well - surprisingly enough, the end result only benefits from this in the form of extra coldness, a metallic sound and feel, and the fact that it makes the track more violent and surprising. It has a good amount of variation as well, so aside of the robotic progress possibly becoming dull in the long run, this track is a very recommendable listen.
The transition to "Stairs" is a heavy one; it has a lower volume level for some unimaginable reason, and consists of less violent sounds. It's put together the same way as "Tracks", meaning that it's based on loops that follow each other in a crude way; it's just more minimalistic and bare than it's predecessor, and more ambient-like as well. The track has a pleasingly robotic and oddly calm feel, which often gets broken by some loud and short samples which makes the track more at home as the follow-up to "Tracks." "Stairs" is atmospheric and unpredictable, but being too different from the first track it causes the EP to sound disjointed, and the lower volume level adds to the EP overall being a pretty difficult listen as a whole.
"Travel" is an interesting and insightful listen, but also a bit complicated one in the end due to the tracks being so different from each other. It's also too short - a third track and working a bit more on the existing tracks could've made this EP a really worthwile purchase, but in it's current form it's a good EP that could've been a splendid one. For friends of noisy and screeching experiments and musique concréte who aren't afraid of crudeness.
7+ / 10
By Existence Establishment. July 20th, 2010.
Hjorten's Travel is based on just that and with two tracks on this quick little 15 minute release the concept is very clear. This is my first exposure to the sounds of Hjorten but right off the bat it's obvious he likes to use the sounds of field samples heavily processed.
"Trains" is the first track here and uses sounds of trains creatively to produce an atmosphere that both abstracts the sounds but also pounds them into your skull. It's like he turns trains into these enormous subterranean beasts a la Tremors or something. The musty air of the train passing by is meshed into these airy moans, cut up conversations of people pitched and cut into sounds of disarray like a blind person fumbling about in an unknown environment.
"Stairs" is more understated but follows the same compositional medium with the heavy use of field samples. The style here definitely falls under the electroacoustic realm. Creaking doors, machine hums, dead air, room tones all of these things converge to form Hjorten's surreal world.
I sometimes find the editing to be a little arduous, the clicking and cutting is a little jarring coupled with so much subtlety it just doesn't seem to always mix. There could be a bit more processing and dynamics in each track because after a few minutes both seem to become rather monotone. But all in all this is definitely an interesting effort and you can easily hear how Hjorten has tactfully created many new and interesting elements out of a small amount of original material.
By S.H. Kingston. June 7th, 2008.
It's hard to tell where someone is going with a release that starts with field recordings of a train going down the tracks, and when the artist starts looping segments of it repeatedly, with steady pans throughout, you really gotta wonder. But somehow its totally amazing. I would have to believe there is a good amount of inspiration drawn from some of the old Dutch tape artists and Concretists. Using the aforementioned train recordings and ambient sounds (people talking and busying around, clanking of the tracks, old dial style phone ringing?, etc) creates an atmosphere that the ears can relate to a real concept.
Even when the sounds are vari-speeded too slow, creating a dense, rumbling cloud; or conversely speed up too much, making the sounds into a shrill, chirping loop, there is still something about the sounds that are familiar and warm. The choice of sounds are incredible, lending themselves very well to layering as well as looping. It's pretty obvious that great care was taken to assure that none of the sounds wash each other out in their frequency range.
Hjorten's use of stereo panning gets to be too much on certain loops, and yanks away the pseudo-reality created. The panning is not dramatic, but it is artificial, and considering the material's organic nature, it doesn't fit in. Stereo recording would aid in a more natural panning and sense of field space; hopefully next time!
The resulting feeling of "Travel" is one of surrealism, disorientation and disarray, though the pieces seem to have structure and sense in the way they are composed. Like alot of European experimentalists, I don't get negative or positive impressions/vibes from the material; it seems as though the sounds are there to speak for themselves. Whatever emotion is perceived would be brought by the listener.