Ståle Storløkken: The Haze of Sleeplessness
Hubro

With The Haze of Sleeplessness, Supersilent keyboardist Ståle Storløkken takes the fullest possible plunge into the retro-futurist realm of synthesizer-based soundscaping. Presented in the form of a seven-movement suite, the thirty-two-minute recording lives up to its press release billing as an “unapologetic synth-fest” guaranteed to appeal to fans of Vangelis, Klaus Schulze, and Tangerine Dream. It's also an homage to electronica's early analogue days, with Storløkken using Minimoog, Prophet T8, Prophet VS, Arp Pro Soloist, and Oberheim Xpander (digital/software synths, too) to generate the material. An old-school character is imparted by such gear, and the sense of malevolence that emerges from the tracks, especially when they're often laden with industrial textures and distortion, plays like a natural outgrowth. Certainly the wealth of timbres he sources from the gear consistently bolsters the multi-dimensional quality of the album.

One of the most satisfying aspects of the recording is the narrative trajectory conveyed by the track sequencing and the progression of the musical design (Storløkken's use of recurring leitmotifs also does much to unify the work). Strengthening its journey-like character is the absence of pauses between tracks, Storløkken choosing instead to have the material advance without interruption and giving the recording the feel of a live set executed in real-time. Adding to the effect, a sense is created of the trip growing ever more unsettling and dangerous as each part transitions into the next.

It takes little time at all for the material to cast a potent spell. “Prelude to the Haze of Sleeplessness” immediately enraptures the listener with its brooding atmosphere and querulous Minimoog melodies, the intro oozing mystery and setting the stage for a trip one anticipates will be filled with dazzling scenes and adventure. Contrasts between the different synthesizer sounds also enhances the material. During “Orange Drops,” for example, a metallic gamelan-styled rhythm provides a center on top of which high-pitched melodies sweetly warble while a deep throb acts as a dark undercurrent. “Stranded at Red Ice Desert. Remember Your Loved Ones (In memory of my dear mother),” on the other hand, arrests the ear with a series of echoing percussive accents Storløkken pairs with an insistent military rhythm, flute-like melodic figures, and corroded squalls, the whole coalescing into a portentous prog mini-epic that's as much sombre ballad as doomscape. A fever pitch of sorts is reached in the penultimate track, “Skyrocket Hotel,” when an aggressive drum machine-styled rhythm works in tandem with thick layers of distorted synth textures and anthemic melodic statements to bring things to a stunning climax.

May 2019