Sunn O))) Archives - NO CLEAN SINGING

AN NCS INTERVIEW: GREG ANDERSON (SUNN O))), GOATSNAKE)

Dec 182015

photo by Peter Best

(NCS contributor Ben Manzella brings us this interview of Greg Anderson, co-founder and mainstay of Sunn O))), Goatsnake, and Southern Lord Records.)

I don’t really know how to introduce this. I feel like I’ve been admiring the work Greg Anderson has been involved with for so long at this point, that this interview was a very surreal experience. As I walked home from my day job, I never could have predicted that I’d be chatting with Greg at all; but this interview is essentially the conversation we had as we discussed the great records he’s been involved with making this year, as well as the shows played, along with what is being planned for next year.

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Ben: With the new Sunn O))) album, Kannon, having been released just last week, as well as a run with Goatsnake to end the year, how has everything been going? What’s the general feeling, a bit exciting or overwhelming?

Greg: It’s been good; it’s been busy, for sure. Besides the Goatsnake release earlier this year, there was a bunch of Sunn O))) shows; so it’s been a time of switching back and forth between Goatsnake and Sunn O))). It’s been really good, really busy; but I’m glad. I didn’t exactly plan for it turn out like this, where both albums were released in the same year, but I’m happy with everything. It’s great. Continue reading »

SUNN O))) / ULVER: “TERRESTRIALS”

Album Reviews 7 Responses »

Jan 292014

(In this post Andy Synn reviews the new collaborative album by SUNN O))) and ULVER.)

Three tracks may not seem like much, on the surface of things, yet, as with all things involving their creators, appearances can be deceiving.

You see, these aren’t just any three songs, they’re three songs that are the product of a secretive, clandestine collaboration between prophetic drone disciples Sunn O))) and esoteric audio alchemists Ulver.

The existence of this enviable (to some, still unbelievable) musical pairing only became apparent a few months ago, though its roots extend all the way back to a fabled and near mythical meeting in Oslo, August, 2008.

It was here that Sunn O))) locked themselves away at Ulver’s Crystal Canyon Studio, beginning one evening and ending the following dawn, to record three “live in improvisation” pieces… for what purpose as yet unknown.

Over the intervening years the Norwegian new-age nihilists (with periodic input from the irrepressible Stephen O’Malley, who would occasionally return to the scene of the initial crime to offer his inimitable assistance) have cut and pasted, chipped and painted, mixed and moulded these three compositions– adding, subtracting, metamorphosing and mutating – into the final forms we see here today. Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: SUNN O))), ULVER, TEMPEL, NUFUTIC, and DEMONICAL

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 4 Responses »

Nov 182013

It’s been an action-packed day here at NCS, with some ass to mouth plus three album reviews and two song premieres — and I had two more reviews ready to go, but I’ve deferred those until tomorrow so that we don’t overdose you with awesomenessness. But at the risk of giving you a manic sugar high, I thought I’d round up some of the best things I saw and heard today. We’ll begin with a couple of announcements and end with a new song and a new video

SUNN O))) and ULVER

One week ago I reported about a cryptic announcement by Southern Lord that seemed to suggest a long-rumored collaboration between Sunn O))) and Ulver was about to become a consumable reality. Today we got a more informative announcement, i.e., that these two storied bands have indeed collaborated to create a three-track recording entitled Terrestrials — “a trio of movements which flow like magma beneath the Earth’s crust, sonically uninhibited, unpredictably cosmic, haunting and stirring, yet simultaneously ceremonious and beautiful.”

Southern Lord will be releasing Terrestrials in February 2014, the cover can be seen above, and we are promised that over the course of the next month details shall be dribbled out concerning “the story of how this alliance and recording came to be.” Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: HEXIA, CYNIC, SUNN O))), ULVER, INGESTED, THE MONOLITH DEATHCULT

Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC 3 Responses »

Nov 112013

Hope you had a good weekend. And if you didn’t, hope you have a good week. And if you don’t, I apologize for the feebleness of my hopes. At least your life will be enriched by seeing and hearing these things I saw and heard over the weekend (and yes, I had a good weekend, thank you).

HEXIS

When last we wrote about this Danish band it was during 2012 in a review of their three-way split with As We Draw and Euglena. They’ve now recorded a new album entitled Abalam which is projected for release on January 11, 2014. Over the weekend I saw a music video released earlier this month for one of the new songs — “Tenebris” — which was made by London filmmaker Craig Murray. Murray’s video is an homage to a certain unforgettable scene in William Friedkin’s The Exorcist, with a bit of a twist in its finale.

As for the music, it’s a storm of razors, thunder, and vocal lightning, a ravaging assault of fused black metal and hardcore. Continue reading »