Customer Reviews

Studio 1

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Overview:
Box's Studio 1 album features Raoul Bjorkenheim on guitars & viola da gamba, Trevor Dunn (from Mr. Bungle) on bass, Stale Storlakken on keyboards and electronics (from Supersilent), and Morgan Argren on drums. The project is an experimentation in noise. It reminds me a great deal of Cluster '71, also at times it reminds me of the experimentation Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) did with his noise box in the middle of Whole Lotta Love, and the experimentation he did with a violin bow on the electric guitar on Dazed and Confused. All the tracks are untitled, and were probably improvised on the spot. There is all sorts of interesting textures and sounds here, but there is no song writing, or any sort of traditional song context. I can't really see anyone just loving this and listening to it on a regular basis because of the lack of any structure in the songs. That said, there is a lot here to get excited about. The album is unique and I can't imagine anyone having anything like it in their collection. Further the experimentations in noise and sound are thought provoking and off the wall.

Song Highlights:
untitled 12: A very subdued piece with a decending bass line with haunting echos of electronica layered over the top.

untitled 11: The song starts of with a an eletronica feed back loop. A walking explorative bass line comes over the top of that, which eventually leads into what sounds like a slow unconvential guitar solo. Noise gurgles appear throughout.

untitled 3: This track has a space aged computer communication sounding theme. Sounds like RDD2 is communicating with singing whales or something.

These are really great & fun modern inmprovisations without real jazz elements (that i could detect, at least) in them. More like other artists (Humcrush, maybe) in the Rune label. Special note most be made of Raoul & Agren who are the ones that demand more attention as so much is going on with what they are doing. But really, to be fair, it is a group project (though probably this is a one shot formation). The electronics and keys player is also outstanding creating surreal worlds of sounds. Over all, recommended if your thing is prog, fusion, electronics and improvisation.