Although not officially released so far, I stumbled upon this new album of one of my all-time favourite bands on the web. After some experimental glitchy output and two soundtracks, Ulver comes up with a very surprising album of tremendous quality.
I had no idea what to expect from this album, although I did expect more of an electronic approach than it turns out to be. The first track, ‘Dressed in black’, reminds me a bit of the William Blake album; pounding drums, guitars, pianos, and keys. ‘For the love of god’ makes clear that Ulver is creating some very organic and serious music on this album, consisting of orchestral arrangements, guitar solos, very good drumming, and most notably some real catchy and well-arranged vocal structures. On the third track, ‘Christmas’, one can once more hear Trickster G’s phenomenal vocal qualities. The high-pitched outbursts remind me a bit of Simen Hestnaes’ vocals on the “La masquerade Infernale” album by Arcturus (on which most of the vocals are done by Trickster G., by the way…).
The rest of the album is of the same high quality, ranging from neo-classical/ethereal music to rock to progressive rock to jazz (‘In the Red’!) to film music. And all in all it is sounding a bit mad and circus-like.
Although overwhelming when listening to it the first couple of times, I have the feeling that this album will grow on the listener after repeatedly enjoying it. If you are familiar with the William Blake album: imagine a more mature, mad, coherent, orchestral Ulver and you’ll get the idea… All in all, I can only say that I really love this unique band!
