Search - Ulver :: Silencing the Singing

More eerie electronic goodness from Ulver

Eric Peterson | USA | 02/25/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This is not for everyone. This is for people who love to sit back and listen to very absurd, yet moving, music. If you enjoy Ulver's previous electronic works in Silence Teaches You How To Sing, you should think about purchasing this. If you are familiar with Ulver's work, let's just say this is a combination between Perdition City and Silence Teaches You How To Sing. In any case, if you hate ambience, then I would stray away from this. Although this album is somewhat of a combination between ambience and dark melodies, you must have patience. It can be very rewarding if you have the patience. It does a few beats in the first track, "Darling Didn't We Kill You," like Perdition City did, for those of you who hated STYHTS but liked Perdition City. The following two tracks "Speak Dead Spaker," and "Not Saved" are can be compared to STYHTS moreso. All in all this is a solid E.P. I enjoyed it, but I can easily see reasons why people would hate it: Too boring, not enough going on, too repetitive, etc. And for that I give it a 4, because Ulver could have done a lot more with it in comparison to their previous two releases. However, it is a worthy electronic collaboration.If you have never heard Ulver before, I would advise trying to find Perdition City, and then Silence Teaches You How To Sing, before buying this. Ulver is a band of many sounds. While most of their albums are unreased in America, they started out as a black metal band, and are now purely electronic, but they had many changes throughout their career. However, they managed to keep their avid darkness admist all of their works."

Ekstrem Atmosfære

IcemanJ | Ohio, USA | 04/06/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This EP is good if you like Ulver moments of very soft, slow atmosphere, with not that much melody. These three songs are very repetitive overall with small subtle changes and sounds. This is what makes atmospheric music. The best example is the 3rd track, where the same short melody is basically repeated over and over for 10 minutes, with different little sounds happening each time. It's much better with headphones. The first 2 tracks are a little more varied but still similar. There are a few really great melodies too such as the end of track 2 there is a very nice soft violin played.This is not similar to Perdition City at all. There are no groovy rhythms to be found, and nothing remotely upbeat at all. Some of the sounds sound like skipping records, distant grim bells, and just... ambient stuff. If you liked Perdition City... well, I can't tell you if you'd like this or not, that's up to you. I know I love them both. This CD definately is not for everyone, even Ulver fans. I easily see why people would hate it: too boring, too repetitve, not much melody, not much rhythm... but I personally find it to be another Ulver masterpiece."