Netherworld: Mørketid
Glacial Movements

The Norwegian term ‘Mørketid' refers to a dark period during the year when the Arctic winter cold encases everything and the sun doesn't rise over the horizon. One might expect Alessandro Tedeschi's hour-long Netherworld collection, then, to be a relentlessly gloomy affair but, surprisingly, it's anything but. Tedeschi, who manages the Italian label Glacial Movements, uses sampled fragments of sounds from the Artic area to build soothing, hypnotically lulling pieces that extend broadly and unfurl slowly while allowing ample light to seep in. Muffled voices and field noises give meditative settings like “Dreaming Arctic Expanses,” “New Horizons,” and “Jøkul” a strong sense of place while soft clanks, glistening signal tones, and washes cast a becalmed spell in “Mørketid” that lasts longer than twelve minutes. “North Pole” and the thirteen-minute “Virgin Lands” are textbook examples of time-suspending isolationist ambient music.

September 2007