Jannick Schou – The Act Of Shimmering

I’ll ask of the berserks, you tasters of blood,
Those intrepid heroes, how are they treated,
Those who wade out into battle?
Wolf-skinned they are called. In battle
They bear bloody shields.
Red with blood are their spears when they come to fight.
They form a closed group.
The prince in his wisdom puts trust in such men
Who hack through enemy shields.

* The Haraldskaer saga

—

The Berserkers were Norse warriors who terrified into submission those unlucky enough to clash with them. The exact details of their lives have been lost in the passage of time, but it is often believed that they dressed in animal skins and worked themselves into a frenzy before battle. Perhaps partaking in the hallucinogenic mushroom known as fly agaric, the warriors would quite literally ‘go berserk’, turning the fierce noise of pre-battle into an awesome cacophony. Danish composer Jannick Schou follows in the footsteps of these ancient Scandinavian combatants, but replaces physical power with a sonic force equally unrelenting…

Appearing under his own name and as Cyclon, Schou has already proven his worth with a slew of releases appearing on Dead Pilot Records, Under The Spire, Rural Colours, Heat Death Records, and the label which Schou co-runs, dotContemporary. Available here on Experimedia, Schou’s uncompromising vision is accentuated by the assertion that The Act Of Shimmering shall only be sold on 12” Vinyl.

Each side of the album contains three pieces cohesive in tone and timbre; do not look for a quiet/loud/quiet sound here, everything is simply at high volume and it is invigorating. The album opens with Enormity Of An Empty Sky,  beginning slowly but soon building up its power and by second number Sky We Are Silent, The Act Of Shimmering will floor the listener with a strength which echos the most abrasive noise-pioneers.

It would be a mistake to think of the album as consisting of noise only. Rather, it is both paradoxically brutal and subtle, a tightrope which demands high fidelity and a keen ear for almost hidden details. This subtlety is shown on title track Act Of Shimmering. Within the din, one picks up hints of something different emerging, a more delicate and tuneful aspect to Schou’s art. This complexity, this friction between melody and noise usually results in noise reigning supreme, but there are still snatches of hidden melody throughout the remainder of the album.

The Act Of Shimmering may be most easily defined by its harshness and confrontational power but unlike the Berserkers, what Jannick Schou offers to us here is not confined to just one theme. Each of the six pieces highlight a composer with the confidence to trust in the listener’s intelligence, the artist not deigning to pander, nor indulge his audience – this is both to Schou’s credit and to our benefit.

Released on July 5th by Experimedia, in a limited pressing of 300 copies.

- Adam Williams for Fluid Radio

www.experimedia.net
www.myspace.com/schoudk