ALEXANDER RISHAUG

Shadow Of Events is the third album by Oslo, Norway sound artist, producer and musician Alexander Rishaug, following his Asphodel CD Possible Landscape (2004) and 2001's Panorama on the Smalltown Supersound label. The album was recorded over a five year period and mixed in Berlin last year. Not unlike his previous albums but apparently more refined Shadow Of Events combines a warm and organic haunting quality blended with both abstract and concrete tones and subtle digital noises. "Most of the tracks are developed from field recordings, instrument improvisation or live sampling. Then processed and edited with the computer as the main tool. I've used sounds hailing from a dusty rhodes, a lovely guitar, a nervous radio and a lonely piano." Rishaug's music is informed by classic minimal composers such as Steve Reich and Terry Riley as well as 90's electronica acts such as the Oval/Microstoria axis and like-minded but more obscure artists associated with the Mille Plateaux label (remember Neina?) but surely wouldn't be out of place on a contemporary label like Kranky or Type. Repetitive and seemingly simple melodic patterns are combined with (and sometimes obscured by) decaying monlithic drone layers creating a hazy melancholic landscape slowly unfolding its beauty. Granular shoegazy tones are building up in slow-motion recalling the patient yet precise and complex drone works of Stephan Mathieu, William Basinski and Machinefabriek's Dauw album. (label info)