TWILIGHT LUGGAGE the noise is out there, north

Norway is a grim and dark place. From the clichés derived by talking to people who have never been to Norway and also claim that they will never go there (ie. the average central european chauvinist), the main attractions are expensive alcohol in shops and bars, black metal, six months without sun and cheap but hazardous self-distilled alcohol in the countryside. Then there are fjords, stories about Nazi-experiments in WWII, even wilder stories about the early days of rock'n'roll, and naked bathing. But as usual, clichés only ever tell parts of the whole story - not necessarily the truest ones, but sometimes the most entertaining ones. Especially when you know from years and years of experience that the dark woods of Norway (and other Scandinavian places) grows an exceptional and rare breed of music lovers, music extemists and music renewers. Just think of Lasse Marhaug or Circle and anything between. But there is a lot more to be found in these woods than you might think at first.

Fight against clichés. Fight against the loneliness and the fear. Fight against tradition and adjustment and the powerful maelstrom everyday existence slowly sucking the last straws of energy out of your body and, even worse, your mind. Stay alert to what is going on at the fringes, the outcast and outside, the underground. Is it time again to sing praise to the internet and the way it seems to change our society by giving even the most distant projects and endeavours, both geographically and in respect to the common mainstream, a technically limitless audience, and almost zero re-production costs. Without this technology, so much less would be available. Yet, what is technology when you use it to summon up the most horrific goblins and demons from the darkest woods of the northern hemisphere? Moreover, some say that any kind of materialistic possesion only hinders free thinking and the freedom of developing your inner self to align with your outer personae. Hippie shit, if you ask me. If you are out to face your deepest fears in the northern grimness you need some backpack survival kit to prepare you and help you along. If you want to explore the outermost unchartered waters of aural visions that range from fear-inducing to disturbing then you need some guidance material. What you need is some Twilight Luggage.

In more modest words, Twilight Luggage is an independent music label, focused on all kinds of music ranging from dark ambient to harsh noise, from carefully constructed trash to free improvisation, from experimental brutality to gentle noise and whatever else lays on the line. It is based in Bergen, Norway, and run by Andreas Brandal, Hans Kristian Senneseth and Jarle Nordvik. All three of them are also musicians, who were probably looking for a label to release them, and so decided to do their own. Brandal was responsible for the label's very first release back then as well. They are also responsible for the unique and consequent visual design of their releases, that draws inspiration from ancient scandinavian line drawings as well as runes and typo, yet clearly keeps another foot deeply in a modern, punk inspired DIY aesthetic. Embracing the chances the communication technology offers with full force, they put up some simple principles for their releases: they are all free mp3 releases, with the possibility for a limited CDR release in a nice cover for measly €6. That is less than a pint costs up there, mind you. And finally they are unusually modest and tightlipped about their releases, with only a few words dropped to each one of them. This is something then I can do something about.

So what about the goblins, demons, fear fighting and endless night up north? Twilight Luggage have but one simple good tip for you: Enjoy. Here is some to enjoy for you, short descriptions of their latest releases, all of them more than worthwhile for you to check out and order. Perfect listening supply for the oncoming winter, if you ask me. At least, I hope it will be a long and harsh winter. If you want a concentrated look on the labels aural vision, then check out their "Summer Solstice" compilation, with acts such as Chuch, André Foisy, Werewolf Jerusalem, John Lithium, The Tobbacconists or Continental Fruit and many others. But beware, keep in mind that summer is something very different beyond the polar circle. Donate some listening time and then some dimes as a refund to the artists. It is all they ask for, all they live on, actually.

BOE - low harbour

Strange, weird, dark, disturbing. Boe from Bergen, Norway, presents some carefully constructed free improv pieces that are fractal and irritating in a good way. If you like to drop amphetamines for dogs, that is. That kind of good. It is that kind of weather were you definitely don't want to go out and will start to think of the old tales of shipping crews lost at sea even if you are living in a continental country without access to any kind of sea or ocean. Anyway, the storys of the barbaric acts of all kinds of Vikings have reached even the farest away places. These vikings used to carry their boats over mountains and long stretches of land if need arose. Anway, there is a lot of the harsh live on the sea on "low harbour". Because the drums and bass are rustling like old wreck-prone ships in the harbour while the electric guitar and other implements screech disharmonically in discordance like sea creatures from the deep or the evil undertow. The one thing that keeps repeating in my head while listening is a line from a Tom Waits song: "All I am asking is: How's it gonna end?" In a more and more frenzied storm of noise, actually. And from there it becomes worse. What a wonderful ride!

KANIN KRUSETE - like a thing

Not giving a shit when going to the most earsplitting extreme is always an advantage artistically. If leaving your audience sick by inducing them with an overdose of high frequency is clever in sales terms is another story. Does this mean, this record will remain in the lower tens of sold item? If it doesn't, that means the world has changed completely, because then completely fucked up insanity could make its way to anywhere. Like this kind of bulemic mix of harsh power electronics, cut up weirdness, strange humour and bursts of noise. But it would be some kind of freaking wonder, to be honest. The world doesn't change to perfect in just an instant.

Sometimes "like a thing" is very much like watching a train running at you at full speed and being so transfixed you are unable to move. Listen to this loud enough and you will be unable to move for real. At least as long as the raging firestorm hails in your head. Maybe you'll like the feeling. Label says, this is about rejecting humanity. I am not sure this is fitting. "like a thing" is more like rejecting anything there might possibly be. Are Kanin Krusete somehow connected to H1N1? I definitely want to see this live some time, hargh hargh. Oh yeah, and "Fckn Hate Song" is not a Sonic Youth cover.

CORPSE CANDLE - waste not, want not

Corpse Candle also produce some kind of brutal noise, but theirs is somehow of that kind that is actually able to make you feel bad. Afraid, small, shocked, in fear of instant destruction. Three tracks with an average of 8 minutes each consisting of a few layers of very dynamic and mutating noise. They probably took some Breughel paintings for inspiration (the hell epics) or ugly Zombie slasher movies, where they concentrated on the sounds that Zombies make when they go hunting for fresh flesh. Maybe I am wrong and this is not about horror, but plainly about the sounds you will hear when standing in the middle of a house that is just being consumed by a raging fire. And then suddenly Zombies turn up inside the fire and scream in their most evil voice. Electronic noise without giving a second thought to anything besides onslought and how to best attack the listener with noise. Maybe just done by amplification and putting mics to a shitload of distortion panels and amps. Should I be seeking professional help when I am starting to hear melodies hidden deep inside the noise halfway during my third consecutive run through "waste not, want not"?

HYPOCHONDRIOSIS - nothing felt like this

I have waited for a record like this to come along for quite some time now, but I know that everything will turn up sooner or later, be it good or bad or worse. All you need is some patience. Harsh noise, directly brutal power electronics just like they used to do it back then, when it came mainly from Japan, or was received to come from there, to be more precise. But not the refined and artistically highbrow form of Merzbow. No, more the orgiastically direct and visceral approach of Masonna or Gerogerigegege. Old-fashioned? I am not sure with music that is still able to bomb any kind of party to bits. One track on here is called "Pleasure Anxiety" and another "swallowing pieces of glass in search for physical satisfaction" and both describe the sensation derived from listening to this at top volume quite well. Yes, the title "nothing felt like this", does so, too. Hypochondriosis hails from Finland, and that means that the whole of Scandinavia seems to have some kind of noise virus. The consequency in quest for harsh noise is remarkable. At least as much as that the effect this has on me as a sympathetic listener is still pretty much the same in my twentieth year after my first encounter with Merzbow. After all of this I am also pretty sure you can use this CD to quickstart any kind of motor in zero degrees.

ALEPH NAUGHT - coagula

In a completely different set of mood than all the harsh noise music mentioned above, "coagula" is in its own way grim and scary. The label calls this "eerie, mesmerizing, dark ambient" and they are dead right with this description. In a sense you need not know more to get to the core of this album. But then you may also want to ponder on how slowly changing echoes of tones can fill up rooms so entirely, as if the room is being slowly flooded with the sound the wind makes when it flows through the electric wires in the masts and makes them sing late at night. With this kind of soundscapes I always visualize caves in the eternal ice at the poles and a ship slowly flowing through the darkest and stillest water you have ever ssen. And the smallest sound reflecting from the ice walls hundredfold and for a long time to come. And you will be enclosed in this surrounding forever and ever. One of the four tracks may be called "Putrefactio" but in my view it is not about something once organic slowly falling apart and decaying, but about time standing still and complete immobility.

BRANDAL / SENNESETH - a walk in the park

Finally, a collaboration recorded 2007 between Andreas Brandal and Hans Kristian Senneseth, both parts of the chief executive board of Twilight Luggage. And their music is nothing like Gary Numan, believe you me. Free improvisations with guitar, bass and electronics. Is it reworked and manipulated after recording? Hard to say. But there are so many changes and effects and retouches and reroutes in these four untitled pieces that any kind of guess is probably wrong. There is a breath of Derek Bailey and the modern school of improv noise as well as a touch of stream of consciousness playing so heavily connected to the west coast drug scene. If this is really totally improvised then both Brandal and Senneseth are players with wide open ears and very quick reaction. Because sometimes they fall so melodically into the same pattern. But of course only for a short term at a time. My favorite part of all "a walk in the park" is somewhere close to the middle of "number two" when the bass produces a distorted, fuzzed, low noise sound, but that is only because I am addicted to bass noises. In some ways this one is the record the hardest to listen to of all the ones mentioned here; but in other ways it is also the most exciting one.

If you find yourself troubled by all of this, I recommend to do the following: go to your stereo and turn the volume know clockwise. Sometimes that helps to make all those things suddenly make sense.