MAJA S.K. RATKJE & LASSE MARHAUG
– music for gardening
(CD, Picadisk)
In an interview I read Lars
von Trier (“Antichrist”) stated that he likes gardening, but that in his
view gardening is not at all the peaceful, easy labor that it is regularly
pictured to be. In von Trier’s view gardening is like playing a brutal
god, in that you decide first what will grow and what is going to die in the
field and then, when finally it has grown, you cut it up and eat it. He
therefore claims that gardening is a brutal and cannibalistic act. But then
he also says that he likes taking anti-depressiva and that he has no ethical
predicaments about it. Yeah, right.
The king and queen of pure
Norwegian avant-noise, Maja S.K. Ratkje and Lasse Marhaug, probably have a
different viewpoint as well, since Ratkje likes to live in the country, but
then again all of this is probably completely besides the point and all that
is important is the fact that “music for gardening” is a singular,
destructive trip through a mind completely set in noise. Moreover, the
pureness quality seal incorporated here is completely different to that of,
let’s say, Vodka, where even the bottles in the factory are cleaned with
the same brand of vodka to ensure highest purity and hygiene. Picadisk,
Lasse Marhaug’s own label, has its own seal of purity, meaning it only
presents rarely refined noise of the most extreme manner. This has been
proven with albums by e.g. Hijokaidan or Birchville Cat Motel.
Anybody who know Lasse Marhaug
– and despite what he writes in his bio, that is quite many people in
interested circles - also know that his vision for noise is quite hectic,
manipulated / manipulative, chaotic, suprising and bound for extreme
eruptions. Ratkje is quite the opposite in her working methods, structurally
very formal and consequential, but definitely not in the reaches of
extremity. So the six pieces on here, made for gardening, are a bit of a
mixture of the two poles, though it seems that the random and chaotic
element wins out finally. Who has added the Japanese samples to the mix? Who
the speed up beats? Who the sampled string sections? And who was responsible
for the cuts and cut-ups? I don’t think it really matters, as much as I
think it won’t ever be found out.
This complete disregard for
stylicstic formulas, the wide variety of sounds incorporated in the noisy
bricollage and the always soaked in fun acts of suprising additions to the
mix, make “music for gardening” a fantastic listen. Definitely not an
easy one, on top, actually for most people a hard one – which is not the
least due to some harsh and unexpected eruptions of noise – but also one
filled with fun. Heavy, distorted bass here and mangled field recordings
there and then some high-pitched, ear piercing frequencies on top. The crazy
holiday goes on and on and on.
