Music, soundscapes, fieldrecordings and noise.
For an undogmatic elitist art which is available for everybody but only of interest for the few.
REVIEWS
From "Foxy Digitalis"
Review of "Klokker og Guldsmede":
My initial notes from my first listen to this disc included the following thoughts; short songs consisting of field recordings of (among other things) babies cooing, children playing, and birds chirping with minimal electronic manipulations of bells... could be banal, but its simplicity does sound quite nice. In actuality, "Klokker Og Guldsmede" (Bells and Dragonflies) is a series of recording from the garden of Peter Bach Nicolaisen, an artist associated with the Krabbesholm School of art architecture and design in Denmark, who incidentally also released the CD. While it was nothing I would have rushed to put on any playlist, but I did enjoy listening to the disc when in repose in the front room of my house in the early afternoon when it got the best light. Come to think of it, that's probably the same time period when the recordings were made so it all seemed very natural. There were even times when I had difficulty determining what was recording as what was life happening down the hall or around the corner. So I wasn't too far off my initial impression, on the surface, the recordings seem more of what is, has been, and will come again, the difference is, there is an opportunity to create a relationship with the backyard infants, bells, and dragonflies that many other recordings don't offer.- Chris Jacques
From "Vital Weekly"
Review of "Vindspejl"
A stormhat is not a hat you wear during a storm, but means monk's cowl and behind the musical project with that name we find one Peter Bach Nicolaisen from Denmark. He is associated with the Krabbesholm School of Art and Architecture Design, who released a 3"CD from him. What 'Vindspejl' means I don't know, but I assume something like 'wind arrow' and it brings us straight away to the main interest for Nicolaisen, being field recordings. These are widely treated inside the computer and create a work that falls in the microsound world. Carefully cracking about, drones created from stale wind recordings, bass sounds from earthly activities: all the usual suspects are there. As such it's absolutely nothing new under the sun of microsound, but Stormhat does a fine job. None of the eight tracks are weak by any standards, perhaps sometimes a bit interchangeable, but it's produced with care and style. That is sometimes enough. (Frans de Waard)
From "Touching Extremes"
Review of "Vindspejl"
Amidst an abundant batch of useless, trash bin-destined electronica discs that I had to listen to in recent months, this CD by Danish sound artist Peter Bach Nicolaisen (an associate of the Krabbesholm School of Art and Architecture), which comes in a limited edition of 100 copies in orange rice paper, truly stands out as an intelligently conceived product, featuring a nicely biotic geometry of synthetic emissions, polite disturbances and field recordings which seem tailor made for Stormhat's general artistic concept. Cohort's boss John Gore writes that sometimes "Vindspejl" might recall early ambient albums by Brian Eno, "On Land" in particular; I agree only on a fraction of this affirmation, that relative to some of the chiaroscuro strokes of a track like "The darkness surrounding the place". Everything else is all Nicolaisen: a concoction of brilliant glow and organic life made even more appealing by gentle kisses of frail indecision and pale colours. The whole sounds fresh, profound and technically advanced; in my book, Stormhat is one of the names to follow in this area from now on.
From "Aural Pressure"
Review of "Vindspejl"
A hot summer day in June finds me listening intently to a recording by Denmark’s Peter Bach Nicolaisen, recording under the name Stormhat. Surrounded as I am by the idyllic trappings of a semi-rural soundscape, a haphazard, yet utterly coherent melange of birdsong, fused with rush hour traffic, the gentle swoosh of trees, and a dusting of distant building work, I am sometimes at odds with what is occurring outside of my window, and what is coming out of the speakers of my hi-fi – a kind of skewed simulacra rendered in sound .
“Vindspejl” elegantly bestrides the twin disciplines of location recording, and electronic/digital composition,at once positioning itself somewhere between the visceral minimalism of Steinbruchel, and the organic soundscaping sensibilities of, say Koji Marutani, or Chris Watson. But this is not to say that Stormhat does not have his own unique signature. Tracks like the haunting, bristling 'Night of Mirrors', or the glistening, 'A Dusty Summer Morning', with lustrous microsonic instrumentation occasionally and surprisingly perforated by the sound of birdsong (I genuinely had to turn the sound down in order to check that this was on the recording) leave me spellbound. Nicolaisen has a great ear, and a mastery of the art of creating tension and resolve, weaving shards of expansive electronics, digital manipulation, and oftentimes startling and idiosyncratic location recordings together to form a thing of beauty and restraint.
The brevity of the press release, and the low budget aesthetic of the CD’s hand made cover do little justice to the quality of the recordings presented here, and the label’s inevitable, yet ultimately redundant description of the album’s parallel with the early ambient work of Brian Eno is disappointing, and left me questioning how and where they would like this recording marketed. Eno’s name has all too often drawn vague comparisons from the most unlikely of sources in a vain effort to attract the attention of the now super saturated “ambient” scene – perhaps signifying that ambient music is now confronted with the conundrum of who (in the 21st Century) should take on the mantle of the new “Godfather of Ambience”.
Stormhat deserves to be heard by the faithful, discerning adherents of microsonics, and minimalism, as befits labels such as Mille Plateaux, Line, or Non Visual Objects, and with continued effort, and a corpus of work with the character and craftsmanship of “Vindspejl”, will hopefully gain considerably wider recognition. (ECM)
From "and/OAR"
Review of "Vindspejl"
This is a very fine work from Danish composer Peter Bach Nicolaisen, who
at one point had a release scheduled to be released on and/OAR, but sadly
became one of several releases to be cancelled, due NOT to the quality of the
work, but mostly to an overbooked schedule with no time to get through it all.
I've seen the label press info and subsequent reviews for this release and a
Brian Eno ambient reference seems to be prevalent in all of them, but I
personally don't see this as a solid comparison. If anything, I find that Peter's
work often contains a sparkling energetic modernity that has more in common
with the current stream of electronic / electroacoustic sound work like much of
Andrew Deutsch's discography (except "The Sun" and "Loops Over Land") or
Steinbruchel, with dashes of some of the current generation of Italian "cinema
for the ears" composers, but Peter's work truly stands apart and cannot be so
easily compared without deception. (Dale Lloyd)
From "Vital Weekly"
Review of "Hypnagogia"
Following 'Vindspejl' on Cohort Records (see Vital Weekly 527), this is my second encounter with Stormhat, a musical project by Peter Bach Nicolaisen from Denmark, named after 'Monks Hood', a plant growing the garden of the composer. It's poisonous and Nicolaisen is interested in all sorts of plant that are poisonous and hallucignenic. Here his new release deals with the period of falling asleep, also known as hypnagogia. Again, Stormhat uses to quite an extent field recordings and processed version thereof, all created in the digital territory. Gliding tones, crackles and deeper drones make up the five pieces on this release. Like on 'Vindspejl' he does a truly fine job at that, but doesn't side-step the regular territory of microsound. Stormhat is just one of the many doing this kind of music, and alike many, he does he fine job. It's time to make the next push forward to revive this music. Stormhat could do that, or perhaps not. We have to wait and see what happens. (Frans de Waard)
From "Digitalis Industries"
Review of "Hypnagogia"
Wow, this record’s title is really, really appropriate. Hypnagogia is the period before falling asleep, or waking from sleep, when a person is alert to their bodily senses but still half in the land of sleep. During hypnagogia is pretty much the only time you’d want to hear this record from Stormhat, lovely as much of it is. During your primo waking hours this would either fade into the background or make you too dreamily lethargic to do anything.
This album is mostly composed of glassy fragile drones (probably digital in source) and disembodied ether sounds (field recordings). Some of the sounds are otherworldly for sure, but they are never eerie or dissonant enough to shake you out of your hypnagogic dream world. In fact, this whole albums seems geared to giving you sweet dreams populated by odd flora and distant pipers.
I can only hope this record is playing in your headphones next time you find yourself falling asleep in garden bed. 7/10 -- Cola Nitida (20 February, 2007)
From "leicesterbangs"
Review of "Hypnagogia"
Stormhat - Hypnagogia (A Beard of Snails Records)
Hypnagogia is the state and time between sleeping and waking and vice versa during which distortions to true perception can occur. Stormhat is aiming to provide a soundtrack for, or a representation of, this. Through use of field recording, digital drone and microsound Stormhat succeeds in creating a hallucinogenic plethora of ambient noise that to the conscious mind would be relatively incomprehensible but to the sub/unconscious brain serve as a springboard into realms unknown. A real must for the lucid dreamers out there.
Will F.
From "The Sound Projector" 16th. issue.
Review of "Hypnagogia"
"....What I enjoy about his approach is the crystal-clear deep-focus effects his sonic camera brings to us; so much ambient work opts for the muddy, the indistinct, and the foggy drizzle, the better to conceal the fact that its originators have no musical ideas or any concept of structure. Not so with Stormhat; just listen to the crisp, organic delicacy on the fourth track here.....Layered it may be, yet the whole picture remains as translucent as the mysterious summery days it represents.....he never once fudges a note or hides his activities under a veil of murk.. One to file alongside the various projects by fellow Dane Marc Kellaway, whose approach to dronery is somewhat lighter than Stormhat's, so it is to the latter you must turn when you feel the need of a good midnight dose of slow, pulsating energy that's as thick as a glass of velvet brandy." (Ed Pinsent)
From "Vital Weekly"
Review of "Green Machine" and "Addicted to disaster"
STORMHAT - GREEN MACHINE (mp3-album by Bleak)
STORMHAT - ADDICTED TO DIASTER (Advance CDR)
Creating musical pieces exclusively built on field recordings can be quite a task: combining sonic images of the real sound world ending as whole piece of art and more importantly: As a musical composition. Composer and sound artist Peter Bach Nicolaisen succeeds in his explorations into concrete sounds on his two latest efforts as Stormhat. Stormhat is the Danish word for one of the European continent's most poisonous plants; a few grams consumption of the Stormhat-plant marks the end of a human life. That Peter Bach Nicolaisen has chosen the name of a threatening and dramatic object makes sense when listening to present releases by Stormhat titled "The Green Machine" and "Addicted to disaster". The atmosphere on both albums is quite dark and mysterious with sonic expressions that float around crackling noises, high frequency tones, industrial sounds and deep buzzing drones. Distant voices appear once in a while inside the six intersections of "Addicted to disaster" that otherwise floats in repetitive sound spheres giving an excellent hypnotic effect on the entire album. Compositions on both albums circulate in-between concrete found sounds and processed field recordings. The "Green Machine"-album has a more Eastern musical approach to the ritual soundspheres reminiscent of a non-rhythmic version of early Muslimgauze. Where pieces based on field recordings sometimes can seem quite static the expression of Stormhat, due to the many sound layers, creates plenty of sonic energy to keep the intensity intact throughout both albums. With an expression stylistically finding itself in the borderlands between drone-based ambient and subtle noise, I advice adventurous listeners to check the excerpts of both releases, "The Green Machine" and "Addicted to disaster", that can be found on the web-site of Stormhat. The complete "Green Machine"-album is available for free download on the web-site of the Austrian netlabel Bleak meanwhile the "Addicted to disaster"-album will
be available on US-label Diophantine Discs soon. (NM)
From "Vital Weekly"
Review of "Addicted to Disaster"
STORMHAT - ADDICTED TO DISASTER (CD by Diophantine Discs)
THE ORATORY OF DIVINE LOVE - MEDITATIO (CD by Diophantine Discs)
LOCRIAN - GREYFIELD SHRINES (LP by Diophantine Discs)
Somehow Niels Mark managed to slip in a review, Advance CDR it says, in Vital Weekly 626 which ended with the words, "the "Addicted to disaster"-album will be available on US-label Diophantine Discs soon", which took almost 7 months. That's not something we ought to be doing, I guess. Stormhat is the Danish word for one of the European continent's most poisonous plants; a few grams consumption of the Stormhat-plant marks the end of a human life. Its also the name chosen by Peter Bach Nicolaisen to work around with sound and music that entirely is based on processed field recordings. That may sound like old news to anyone, but I must say that if you expect some microsound, ambient glitch than 'Addicted To Disaster' will be a small disappointment, and that's exactly what I like it. No disappointment here for me. This is a pretty strong disc of multiple layered field recordings that never slip under the threshold of hearing, but owe much more to world of 'noise' and 'industrial', even when it has as such nothing to do with that world. This music is there, it's present and a truly great pleasure to hear. Its hard to say what these field recordings originally were, except for the occasional thunder storm passing and some crackle of leaves, but otherwise things are too abstract to be recognized. This breaks away from the traditional field recordings cum microsound ground and moves into something different. That's a great thing and Stormhat delivered a fine CD. (F.d.W.)
From "Wonderful Wooden Reasons"
Stormhat - Addicted to Disaster
Stormhat is Danish artist Peter Bach Nicolaisen who has been a busy fella with releases on a variety of labels. His music is, at first sight, a chaotic soundclash of processed field-recordings and occasional instrumentation. Ambient music this is not but neither is it mindless noise, a fact that becomes readily apparent as the initial maelstrom abates and the quality of Nicolaisen's compositional skill is revealed. He uses a variety of mostly nebulous instrumentation, the notable exception being the prayer bowl, used most notably, on track three, but it is the field recordings that are the foundation of the music and it is these that Nicolaisen utilises to the greatest effect.
This isn’t everyday music. This isn’t even every other day music. This is occasional music as you won’t always be in the head space to appreciate the tumult of sound. The occasions when you are in the right space though and this album hits the player it’ll reward you every time.
From "Heathen Harvest"
Review of "Addicted to Disaster"
The five songs that comprise Addicted To Disaster, the latest by Danish one-man-band, really the vehicle for Danish artist Peter Bach Nicolaisen. On a website that has a short bio on Peter, it gives a perfect description, and a perfect artistic motto: “Stormhat is for an undogmatic elitist art which is available for everybody but only of interest for the few.” If that was taken to heart in a real way, instead of propagating more and more money-making fronts, it would increase the quality of all forms of modern art - fine arts, literature, dance, film, poetry, music and plays - to build a bottom-up approach to exposing one’s work to the general public - and the general public includes everyone: art collectors, dealers, producers, club owners, dudes that run small labels looking for talent, etc and so to give up-and-coming artists who deserve a look.
Unfortunately, there was no attribution to that quote, unless it was a self-descriptive comment from the artist himself. It just appears there, right below an objective description of him and the Stormhat project.
Stormhat, is ambient in a general sense, but not in the ordinary, synth and sampler ambience which is totally electronic. On Addicted To Disaster Stormhat adds humanistic touches: for instance, in “Bell Dub”, there are a range of tonal, yet atonally used, bells, clanged and struck for both percussive purposes as well as just an interesting tone as well. The bells fit in nicely with the more nuanced computerized modes of complexity that are great tools for crafting pleasurable, exotic stuff.
The songs themselves, although there are only five of them, fill up the CD quite completely, since the average tune is about 10 minutes, so, in the end, you come out with almost an hour of music. The opening cut, the thirteen minute-long “Ung fri og Radikal” starts out with a kind of quiet hiss, sounds of a deserted city street, late, late or early in the morning - 3am? The only noises around to hear are the occasional passing cars, fewer and farther between than just two hours ago; a quiet eeriness wherein every strange noise echoes, reverberates, ringing out so far because there’s so much silence that there’s nothing to stop it or interfere with it, like an unfettered radio signal, traveling from point A to B. Anyway, throughout this 13+ minute song, you get what sounds like a tour of the city and its inner workings on a late night shift, throughout the cut you start to hear more and more industrial sounds, as if you were going in and out of 3 shift-factories, meat-packing plants, foundries, etc, where one captures all the sounds and the hums and groans.
However, more likely it was created using intricate software and/or synthesizers, but no doubt, that is the picture this song paints. Very stark, not ominous or emotional, but objective, sounds that have no feelings, are dehumanized, non-anthropomorphized, a film at eleven sort of attitude.
The first two tracks are like the aforementioned description. On track three, however, Addicted to Disorder shifts to a more inward-looking, reflexive groove: the pealing bells, the electronic accompaniment of them, the echoing, ethereal, atmospheric mood of it; the songs are not “mellower” or even more entrancing, but just a different mind-set, the way the music, the samples or found sounds were more of a dreamy, starry-eyed elixir of solipsism.
The last three tracks, “Honey In My Veins”, “Ramt Af Lynet” and “Orange, graa groen” [sic] make it plain that the reflective mood of the previous track isn’t going to be redone four more times, although it may make one reflective of what they hear but the following tracks are more likely to evoke reflection of external things, which the other parts of the disc do wonderfully. Track four, “Honey In My Veins”, takes the listener on the latter part of Nicolaisen’s trip: from the beginning part where one takes a walk through the streets of a quiet, deserted big inner city core, at 3:00 am (L.A.? Chicago? San Francisco?) then either goes to work at or takes a little “tour” through various 3-shift factories, meat packing plants, steel mills, or some such industrial concern.
The third leg of this journey consists of the last 3 songs, where the listener is taken from the noisy industrial plants back to the streets and then you end up underground, in a far away, from prying eyes of the public and very hush-hush, pad where you can chill out and not worry about anything no matter what you’re doing or who you are. It’s a quiet stroll through those corridors and then, at the end of it all, the sun is starting to come up and you eventually make your way to the subway station and go home to take a shower and go to bed.
The one thing about your average, modern-day “ambient” or, “experimental/noise/sampled stuff & found sounds” CDs are that, for the most part, they seem to be, at least at present, a very European phenomenon, without that Rosetta Stone of rock & roll, both American & British, “12-Bar Blues”, the musical style that grew to be conducive to a backbeat and soon white boys everywhere were doing it on their own, hence the 1960s.
These days, while American radio stations are inundated with the most vacuous and empty “faux-angst” of teen-age, upper-middle-class suburbanites, who’ve been handed everything to them by their parents for 20 years or more, if they were lucky!
Back to the album, though. The seamless work of Addicted To Disorder is fascinating to experience. Track number five, “Ramt Af Lynet” is a very atmospheric cut, featuring sampled sounds of a thunderstorm - a calming sound back when I used to live in a region where they were common - then the song is mixed in with flowing rain and more distant thunder, then one hears the bells ringing again. In between those two samples, however, one hears what sounds like the sound of a sword being unsheathed and/or blades being sharpened.
What does it all mean? What is the significance of this sample or that one? What do the cracks of thunder or the peal of bells represent to the songwriter and/or to the band that play them? For those answers we’ll have to get Peter on the couch to talk about them. (Kent Manthie)
Downloads
Excerpts from new material 09
not yet released and no titles yet
>1
>2
>3
>4
>5
Excerpt from 45 minutes track
from sculpture with sound
artshow in Holstebro january 09
> Port
Excerpt from 12 minutes track on release
from the belgian label EEtapes december 08
compilation "Table for Six # 3"
> Substanser
> Koncert
Addicted to disaster
Excerpts from cd released December 08 Diophantine Discs
> ung,fri og radikal
> febertog
> bell dub
> ramt af lynet
> honey in my veins
> orange, graa, groen
Green Machine
Excerpts from cd released by the Austrian netlabel Bleak january 2008
> churning wheels
> fountain of dust
> oegleblik
> virak
> sump
Fieldrecordings (all are excerpts)
> frogs in the pond
> spring in the forest
> rooks
> summerthunderrain
> cityambience plane london
> birds in brooklyn
> lehrter stadtbahnhof berlin
> berlin yard
> children playing music
> the surf at the island of Laesoe
> streetmusic drums in Kassel
> streetmusic strings in Kassel
> waterstream in the chalkmines of Moensted
> evening ambience at the castle of Spoettrup
> hydrophonerecording from lake in Sweden