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:: STRENGIR HRYNJA ::
... artist: TRAJECT
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... STRENGIR HRYNJA (SM013CD008/SM013LP003) ...
... released: March, 2004 ...
... format: CD/LP ...
... 1000 copies ...
... distribution: baked-goods UK, also available as MP3 at BLEEP.COM ...
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... reviews:
... IGLOO MAGAZINE ...
... STRENGIR HRYNJA ...
... 19 November 2004 ...
... "...Gudmundsson's work is slow dancing to geological time shifts where epochs are compressed down into sonic history lessons and the pop and click of shifting rock evolves alongside the hiss and hum of changing weather and lunar wave patterns..."
Mark Teppo, Contributing Editor
Gisli Thor Gudmundsson disappears behind the name of Traject and delivers a record that maps the geology of Iceland to a series of intricate and icily constructed electronic pieces. Strengir Hrynja is a short record -- barely more than forty minutes spread across six tracks -- but it is dense enough that there is a good deal to chew on. "Water For Muddy People" unfolds like a seismic tremor hammering through the cold tundra, thrashing the granite and basalt against an icy sea. The salt water is nearly frozen and it moves like slush, bubbling and gurgling slowly under its own weight. The layers of percussion are caught in this cold water and pop sluggishly like air bubbles slowly being squeezed into nothingness by the compressing ice. "She Said" begins with a bit of guitar noodling and some static-laced beats before becoming swept away by a pounding wave of heavy beats. The guitar fights the currents, tries to parcel out something other than bits of melody and, in the end, only succeeds because the tide runs out.
"CHKAL" rotates on a thick platform of dope beats while ghosts of MCs caper about the microphone. It's a spectral version of a day at Dr. Dre's studio, laced with ice on the curtains and frost on the wires. "Keysplitter" creaks like old rigging and chimes like a half-frozen bell tree. A single flute whispers a lost melody over a phantom haze of random voices. It's as if Autechre were mashing up a field recording from a frozen schooner and a hazy afternoon at a Japanese temple (with just the right amount of percussion thrown in to keep the work moving along, of course).
And there's a landmark for you, if you will. Start out in the dub and glitch basements of Berlin and sight yourself along a line through Autechre's clatter and soot of industrial London and out to sea, shooting for the frozen wilderness of Iceland where the ice chips away at your brain and the volcanic heat throbs beneath your feet. Gudmundsson's work is slow dancing to geological time shifts where epochs are compressed down into sonic history lessons and the pop and click of shifting rock evolves alongside the hiss and hum of changing weather and lunar wave patterns.
A very solid and listenable record.
www.igloomag.com ...
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... unknown media ...
... STRENGIR HRYNJA ...
... 19 November 2004 ...
... "Laroche & Dolson", Gisli Thor Gudmundsson’s Traject contribution to the recent Ai compilation Station, certainly impresses as an accomplished example of cold Icelandic IDM, but it hardly prepares one for the incredible peak that is Strengir Hrynja. It’s about as perfect an example of dark, claustrophobic IDM as might be imagined, an uncompromising work that echoes Autechre’s EP7 in experimental spirit but advances beyond it to inhabit an even more challenging and abstract territory. Even better, its six textural soundscapes weigh in at a perfect forty minutes, with one track a remix from fellow Icelanders Einoma.
The album opens with the stunning “Water For Muddy People” which packs a most astonishing amount of detail into its eight-minutes. Gudmundsson fashions a slow, lurching pebbly groove showered by spindly alien tentacles, phantom voices and creaking reverberations. It introduces a signature Traject effect, criss-crossing bouncing ball rhythms of thrumming clatter. The mood is hypnotic, heavy, and submersive, as the listener gets sucked into the track’s nightmarish undertow. “She Said” maintains the peak level with a portentous opening of bass plucks and machine hum that segues into a congealing funk beat of throbs, squalls, and seizure-induced pinball beats. The piece approximates the sound of synapse firings magnified a thousandfold, or perhaps machines choking on themselves, their guts spewing forth. Incredibly, “Chkal” matches the quality of the opening tracks with a steamrolling clipped beat so massive it sounds like it might decimate anything in its path; majestic themes declaim above while shreds of voices and howls litter the snapping beat. “Path” is a more elastic construction which, in spite of its abstract soundscaping, exudes a funereal mood. In this case, thrumming bass plucks and bouncing ball patterns entropically expire amidst wheezing exhalations and electrical shimmer. A clacking beat occasionally rises to its surface, giving it some semblance of regularity, but is almost drowned out by garbling and distant voices. The set ends with “She Said (Einoma remix)” but there’s little disruption in continuity as the remix’s dense arrangement of metallic clangings, brooding strings, and percussive pops doesn’t noticeably deviate from the Traject style.
Strengir Hrynja represents a peak for Traject but also for the relatively new Zurich label Spezial Material. Certainly it’s indebted to Autechre and Gescom for its general style but Gudmundsson boldly pushes the album into an even more challenging realm of cold, abstract IDM. Listening to it, one marvels at its construction, while being simultaneously awed by its alien sonic universe.
Reviewed by: Ron Schepper ...
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... LOGO – Magazine.com ...
... STRENGIR HRYNJA **** ...
... 19 November 2004 ...
... Now this is scary.
A 40 minute mix of new material from Icelander Gisli Thor Gudmundsson aka Traject, ‘Stengir Hrynja’ impressively veers away from the more typical fluffy sounds that his fellow countrymen often produce, towards an ominous drop of the dark electro stuff. Not too surprising to learn then that his label are disciples of the Skam school of beats, and a close kinship to their most infamous siblings Autechre is strongly resident here. Yet this has much more about it than recent AE projects; more melody, less mechanics, more memorable. It’s intense and not a little claustrophobic, the equivalent of music making walls close in all around you.
Sometimes it’s good to be afraid.
Ian Fletcher ...
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... TESSELATE.ME.UK ...
... STRENGIR HRYNJA ...
... 19 November 2004 ...
... ”…Traject continues in a long line of quality mad releases from the SM crew. "Strengir Hrynja" is a processing force that you can hear and feel growing throughout, and for a comparison, gives off a style like Autechre's e.p7.1 / Chiastic Slide or some of Kutchi's tracks on various Struktur releases . Traject has the technology to capture seven thousand batteries and hard wired them together, and his mission is to expand the brain, how can you go wrong with this? You cant.
Massively recommended.” ...
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... BOOMKAT.COM ...
... ALBUM OF THE WEEK ...
... 15 November 2004 ...
... Spezial Material return with this dense electronic debut from Gisli Thor Gudmundsson, otherwise known as Traject and last seen on Ai’s excellent “Station” compilation. The emphasis here is on robust, icy, deeply icelandic electronic fragmentation, inevitably bringing to mind Autechre at their most condensed. “Water For Muddy People” unfolds and opens the set with aquatic emphasis, slowed-up layers of percussion that take their time settling down with a discernable groove, a cacophony of drenched noises and soundscaping making for a hypnotic, trance-like listen through digital oceans of sound. “Chkal” is killer – a rotating snap of shattered beats and hammered strings orchestrated in the darkest tradition of IDM – a squashed haze of melody and beats littered with a sparing scatter of voice and distant MC rhymes. Awesome. Fellow Icelandic operators Einoma step in with a remix of ‘She Said...’ - overflowing with a dark, brooding, swirling arrangement of strings, clicked beats and metallic percussion underpiined by a semi-conscious undulating nightime-deep bassline. Fans of Autechre's EP7 and the more dancefloor focused Gescom will find much to admire here - Spezial material continues to build its impressive and highly collectable catalogue. Deep. ...
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... SMALLFISH ...
... STRENGIR HRYNJA ...
... 15 November 2004 ...
... MIGHTY FINE RELEASE FROM THE MOST EXCELLENT SPEZIAL MATERIAL LABEL. THIS COMES ON WITH SOME CRISP ELECTRONICS IN A CLASSICALLY CRUNCHY VEIN. HEAVILY PROCESSED YET DEEPLY MELODIC SOUNDS WITH COMPLEX RHYTHMIC STRUCTURES THAT HAVE BEEN FINE TUNED AND HONED TO PERFECTION. PRODUCTION IS OF THE HIGHEST QUALITY AND, AS ALWAYS, YOU CAN RELY ON THIS TO HIT THE SPOT. RECOMMENDED WITHOUT HESITATION. ...
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... WIRE ...
... ISSUE 244 ...
... 1 June 2004 ...
... “This superb debut from Icelander Gisli Thor Gudmundsson is a small
masterpiece of abstract, deep sea Techno, recalling the golden moments of 90s Intelligent Dance Music as purveyed by Autechre and Ken Ishii. Traject displays the same uncanny sleight of hand, his music constantly folding itself into new shapes, particularly on the extraordinary "Path". The whole album is faboulously produced - there's an immense sonic depth and range on display in these pieces, a hyperreal opulence that makes for an experience almost too delicous to indulge in without feeling quilty”. ...
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... LOOP.CL ...
... STRENGIR HRYNJA ...
... 1 April 2004 ...
... “…Traject combines accurately his melodies with darkness. A ghostly sound surrounding and going forward among orchestral beats. A concise record, a compulsory listening. Strengir Hrynja is a hypnotic and moving album …”
Alejandro Vidal, www.loop.cl
April 2004 ...
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