What? Where? What've I missed?



And where's the goddamn new version of Nattens Madrigal? :D:D


Jokes aside, I see the frustration one would feel after that kind of Ulver show, after the exuberance of the previous tour. Though considering what kind of band Ulver is, it almost seems more natural for them to do this kind of thing, than to mix together almost 13 years of musical development. I really appreciated what they did to their music by pulling the actual songs through one filter on stage, but doing one thing at a time feels more natural, in a sense. Having only listened to the album once, I won't comment on it yet.

I guess that to understand why they perform the way they do on this second tour, you have to listen to February MMX:



(http://www.kscopemusic.com/ulver/warsof ... lyrics.php)

It explains a lot, I think.

@Oliver:

I like when there are at least some points within the music you can orientate yourself. If the soundscapes have absolutely no rhythms they should be very strong, meaning with an invisible line, a flow that keeps the music interesting.

For instance: I found Lustmord always rather boring, although he is considered as a god within the scene. But I think you know Michael JV Hensley form the pioniers Yen Pox? He did a solo album under the moniker "Blood Box". The album is called "The Iron Dream". The music has absolutely no rhythmic dynamics. It consists exclusively of spacy and strange soundscapes but is more thrilling than Slayer jamming with M.Z. 412 on acid!

I mean it is exciting and isnt that what music and dark ambient should be all about? I could not feel that in the music of Ulver yesterday.

I really recommend to any dark ambient-fan "The Iron Dream" album. Start with the song "Cold hand in mine" on a huge Hi-Fi and let your dreams come true

"the audience is blind
to what takes place "

if that's what you think: simply an arrogant notion. One that makes you able to play only 55 minutes as a headliner and give shit about anything except yourself.

I might think, as a musician, it is admirable to be like that. But as a fan of music, a fan of the band it disappoints me.

The wolves still wander alone, I guess, with a hard time settling into their status as "rockstars" (hardly there just yet...).
Perhaps one might see it as another step for them to let their fans' expectations down, just like they did in 1998 with the black metal community (it's incredible but there are people still bitching about them discontinuing their involvement in that genre!).

But it still sucks balls from the fan perspective.

@Polygon

I wanted to know if you're open to ambient soundscapes and you are so that's cool. Some listeners will hate ambient no matter what, because they don't have any context to understand it from. Of course I can't comment on the Ulver performance you've seen but yes, I know what you mean, some ambient works for us, while some other project doesn't. Being Ulver is a risky business nowadays - after their first tour, which was a triumph, the band was bound to meet some resistance. Out of the whole Ulver discog, I'd be ready to assume that their ambient productions are the less popular among their fans, with Blake, Perdition and Blood being the most popular. So doing an ambient tour as Ulver is daring, to say the least, and potentially bothersome for many fans.

About your disappointment with Garm: Garm is no musician, and I guess people are getting it now, 20 years into his career. That's what happens when you are a band's frontman who's been as vocal during his career as Garm, people are expecting alot from you, they think you are a musical genius, etc. And then they see you standing on the stage with an iPad, while your bandmates are doing all the music for you. In many ways Garm was a self-made myth in the scene and everytime you meet a myth in person, perspectives change. Which doesn't mean that Garm has no talent, but like you I think his true talent is in the studio, not on a stage.

Having now seen Ulver twice, once here in Århus and just recently in London, what I am left with is the impression that they made a great performance, but I still think it could also have been a lot better. There seems to be so much untapped potential and that is a shame.

I do not think Garm sings enough, either. In London I was wondering: "why does he look like he is trying to balance something on what appears to be an iPad?"

@Oliver:

Very well said and very true. His appearance was always strong. Even when I first listened to Nattens Madrigal I had the feeling that Garm wrote the songs, played the great riffs and screamed. I mean, even after I knew it better, he was always the "genius" behind this music.

The same with "La Masquerade Infernale". He did a lot for that, lyrics, vocals, production...but as the Sideshow-album proved: It was not only his talent, but as well (and to the same part) that of the others involved.

And I agree with you when you say that he is not a musician. He is an engineer. And a vocalist. But he is a better vocalist in studio than live. When he can combine his technical studio-skills with his voice.

I would never blame him for not being (or pretending to be) an entertainer. But the thing that bothers me is that he is doing something he is apparently not enjoying. He is doing that for financial reasons. A strange mix for a man of the faustian spirit.

I guess for Garm doing gigs is like the lesser evil: Still better than doing a job not connected to his art. But when you do it with such less passion...is it?

I am not sure myself.

Playing iPod-balancing games during one´s own concert, if that´s what happened, is just one thing: Disrespectful to the people who came and paid to see you. I really hope that was not what happened.

@Chavdar: I don't get what you try to express

As far as I can understand, he must have been playing some sort of sound producing iOS application. There are lots of them. Or maybe using the iPad as a MIDI controller (yes, doing equilibriums lol). I think it's nice he uses new technologies to produce music but it would be nicer if we knew what and how he does it, or at least could recognize what sounds he is making among all the other bandmates.

@Chavdar:

whatever is wrong (or right) with you. you won today's place in my book of groovy people

salute to Bulgaria

Likewise, Sideshow Symphonies proved that Rygg indeed was the most innovative and interesting creator in that band. But the outcome of that album might've just been a coincidence, not related to G's departure.

I've always thought it was because the band started to think and act like a regular group that has rehearsals, schedules, aims and responsibilities, which eventually killed the element of surprise and turned the creative thrust of doing things into something that was more of a requirement.

Perhaps a development Ulver are, involuntarily, finding themselves within? Though Ulver of course are working in a different musical setting & culture than Arcturus, who never became "more" than a metal band.

A perfectly plausible concern. Yet, as long as Ulver are capable of throwing in sounds and structures that are not as immediately "recognisable" as some of the metal norms Arcturus got hooked up on, I'll follow their whereabouts with a distinct pleasure. And this is not to say there is anything wrong with metal conventions as such (any of the NWoBHM tricks still work in the right hands, for instance), just that these normative solutions can be terribly disappointing if utilised by a once experimental band.