Second Childhood

Now here's an unexpected treat, a full length droning collection of sound from the deft talents of three of Scandinavia's most intriguing sound artists. Hildur Ingveldard?ttir Gudnad?ttir may be better known to many of you as the cellist who used to be with Mum, or possibly as part of J?hann J?hannsson's band, or more recently the guest cellist on Pan Sonic's latest record... so she keeps herself busy then.

Here we see her team up with regular Finnish collaborators Stilluppsteypa and Touch's BJ Nilsen for an exhaustingly beautiful collection of spacious cello drones and decaying field recordings. There's something about drone music, it's so easy to get totally wrong - Thomas Koner for instance is a master of spacious, cave-like ambience, but there's a fine line between spacious ambience and pretensious new age drivel. It's nice then to see these masters of the genre (remember those incredible Stilluppsteypa albums on Ritornell all those years ago?) taking the genre a little further, combining the epic atmospherics of Koner et al with haunting instrumental recordings, voices and Gudnad?ttir's incredible cello playing. All the sounds seem to mesh together into a dense mass of haunting almost spiritual sound, you begin to hear things that maybe aren't there through the tape hiss and whirr of tape. It's almost like flicking through an old photo album, seeing memories you can't quite place and remembering the flickering ghosts of the past. 'Second Childhood' should have fans of Grouper, William Basinski and Deathprod absolutely beside themselves with joy... this is one for those solitary post midnight moments. Just don't say 'acoustic doom' eh? Highly recommended.