Not enough can be said about the many transitions in musical direction Ulver have gone through, throughout their 11 year career. After their release of Themes from William Blake's marriage of Heaven and Hell in 1998, it had become obvious that Ulver had parted ways with the folk and black metal that they were already so well known for.
Following this release came Perdition City in 2001, released on Garm's record label, Jester records. This album solidified that Ulver had gone away from metal and had no intention of returning.
Lineup...
Trickster G. (Garm) : Vocals
Tore Ylwizaker : Programming
Special appearances by...
Håvard Jørgensen : Guitars
Bard "Faust" Eithun : V-Drums on 'The future sound of music'
Ivar Johansen : Drums on 'Nowhere/Catastrophe'
K. J. Pedersen: Drums on 'Porn piece or the scars of cold kisses'
Rolf Erik Nystron: Saxophone on 'Lost in moments' and 'Dead city centres'
Oystein Moe: Bass on 'Lost in moments'
Tracklisting...
Lost in Moments
Porn Piece or The Scars of Cold Kisses
Hallways of Always
Tomorrow Never Knows
The Future Sound of Music
We are the Dead
Dead City Centres
Catalept
Nowhere/Catastrophe
This album takes the listener on an adventure through different genres of music all blended together by vocal climaxes and interesting trip hop beats.
With the opening track, Lost in Moments you enter into Perdition City with some electronics before breaking into a saxophone and vocal duo which borders on modern contemporary Jazz, setting an example for how this album is to turn out. Unpredictable.
Porn or the scars of cold kisses seems to be the aftermath of 'Lost in Moments.' This song contains sad and depressing pianos combined with trip hop beats and occasional guitar licks. It takes on you a rollercoaster, coming to it's climax when Garm's vocals take over the song. Solid track. This mood stays the same right through Hallways of Always. These two tracks essentially sum up the atmosphere and mood the album, dark and depressing. Parts of this song could easily be used for rap/hip hop beats.
After somewhat of a filler in Tomorrow never knows, we get to The Future sound of Music which is one of the best songs on the album. It still contains the depressing atmosphere of the album, but continues the journey through 'Perdition City' onward with it's excellent use of electronics, and using a sampled Choir really helps with this song.
With We are the Dead we get another filler, just some electronica stuff with Garm whispering over it.
The last three tracks are by far the best on the album, once Dead City Centres takes shape it sounds like music right out of a 1900's crime busting movie. It's a bit difficult to explain, so that just gives you another reason to go listen to it.
Catalept starts off with some raging violins which carry through the whole song, occaisionally accompanied by some electronics. This serves as an opener for what is far away the best song on the album, Nowhere/Catastrophe. This track borders again on contemporary jazz, along with trip hop beats and fitting electronic samples, all topped off with Garm's vocal climaxes in this song. There are even some electric guitars in this track but without Garm, this track is nothing. This song is absolutely brilliant and a great way to end the album.
Strengths...
Garm's vocals are absolutely brilliant, if you are familiar with Ulver's previous works than this is no surprise to you but this man has one of the most amazing ranges in music i've ever heard.
Very good use of electronics
They go outside of just trip hop and electronica here, using saxophones on two of the tracks.
Weaknesses...
Some of the tracks take a bit too long to develop into what they are
Too many instrumentals, Garm's got a great voice and they should take more advantage of it
Best tracks...
Nowhere/Catastrophe
Dead city centres
The future sound of music
Lost in Moments
Overall, 4.3/5
