Pjusk: Tele
Glacial Movements

Though it might seem odd to say it, Tele is one of Glacial Movements' coldest releases. Consequently, the argument could be made that it most fully realizes the label's fundamental concept. The album title is a Norwegian word that, translated, refers to frozen underground water, and there's certainly something subterranean about the brooding moodscapes that make up the album's fifty-one minutes. Background details about the release prove telling: Pjusk members Rune Sagevik and Jostein Dahl Gjelsvik hail from small villages on the west coast of Norway and take their inspiration from the harsh weather and landscapes of their home turf Tele takes as its specific inspiration the arctic wilderness). Even more telling is the fact that the two create most of their music in an old cabin situated high up in the mountains, such that the snowy peaks and icy terrain surrounding them can't help but profoundly affect the music they produce.

Nine tracks are indexed, but in this case the album presents itself as more of a singular whole, especially when each setting flows into the next without pause. A visually suggestive travelogue that takes the listener across barren, depopulated lands of snow and ice, the album lurches slowly, accompanied along its journey by a discomfiting array of geological rumbles, gaseous emissions, muffled foghorns, and ice-cold vocal exhalations. The album isn't without musical moments; during “Krystall,” for example, a weave of IDM-styled synths and beats surfaces in a way that suggests a typical Plaid track slowed to a crawl. The later “Kram” exploits the hypnotic potential of its synth melodies for all they're worth, such that its deathly sleepwalk is offset by its musical slow-burn, while the eight-minute “Polar” ends the album on a livelier note with a colourful mix of breezily swaying rhythms and bubbly IDM atmosphere. There's an elemental and primal character to Pjusk's soundscaping, with the focus obviously less on standard melody and song-based structure than on atmosphere and flow. So while no one will come away from Tele whistling any tunes, there's no disputing the fact that the duo's material is powerful on evocation grounds.

April 2012