| Kristoffer Nyströms Orkester was birthed from the minds of Kristoffer Oustad (V:28) and Peter Nyström (Megaptera). After some successful collaborative sessions between the two artists, they decided to work on an album. brakeHEAD is the result.
The tone of brakeHEAD is set from the opening track “biTer (deep cut edit)”. A wash of sonic noise gently breathes over a continuous ritual drumming. The piece is one that slowly builds, with some ambient electronics swirling in for added affect. Near the halfway mark of this 8 minute track the beats start to change slightly as some mildly distorted samples start to find their way out of the drone to reach the surface. The track plateaus as the noise moves to the background and a sense of calm is slowly formed.
This tranquility is quickly dispersed when “high_level_input - slow_speed_output (well done)” unleashes its caustic wall of machines gone awry. As the army of machines march away, the listener is left in a cold and dank abandoned factory where he is only joined by the sounds of running water and the occasional clang of metal. He can still hear the wail of the machines far off in the distance as someone futilely tries to repair this damaged place.
The 19:32 epic “extenDEAD konnektion (shortended diskonnekted version)” is a constant rolling of chaos that is built up, then restrained and pulled back only to have another pattern of noise form and go through the same cycle. This piece is a long string of vignettes that are connected by their textures and auras. Eventually, a serene atmosphere rinses over the last section of the song as it slowly dissipates into the æther.
“asphalt flowers (kontinentalische norswedische ordnungsverkriftung mix)” closes the album. On this track I hear Kristoffer Oustad’s influence the most. The guitars are strongest and at their most discernable. The gloomy sound is only added on by the samples of Iraq war news clips the fade in and out of the distortion.
Even though brakeHEAD is a fairly short release, clocking in at just over 38 minutes, it is a damn strong one. If this release didn’t slip through my fingers last year it would have easily made it in my own personal Top 10 of the year list. Thankfully Nyström and Oustad are back together in the studio working on another album, hopefully it will be as mindblowing. Reviewed
by: Tom Gilbert
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