Henkka Kyllonen, the Finnish artist trading as No Xivic, will probably not thank me for describing him as a twenty-first century Sibelius, but that is the first thought that springs to my mind upon listening to this dark and edgy slab of doom ambience. Kyllonen has spent a staggering fourteen years studying music theory and piano at the Oulu Conservatory, which sounds a whole lot more fun than getting a job. What we have here are long swathes of grey textures, each a slightly different beast from its predecessor, nagging at the corner of the mind like half-seen apparitions, this interspersed with tinkling piano and muttered voices. It's almost Thomas Koner territory, pleasantly soporific yet vaguely sinister. There is silence here, and space. Time and distance are magnified, there is resonance, depth. When I was a boy my mother had a biscuit tin with little pictures of the great composers arranged in a circle on its lid. Mozart was there of course, and Beethoven, Bach, Hadyn, Strauss. Sibelius was portrayed as a grim faced gentleman with mad, bulging eyes, bald as a coot. It may have been this biscuit tin that first inspired me to listen to the great man's symphonies, to the Finlandia, to the Karelia suite and - best of all - to that darkest of pieces, 'Swan of Tuonela'. Whatever, the secret of Sibelius was always an understanding of the northern landscape itself, brief moments of colour and jollity scattered in a swirling morass of monochrome gloom. Similarly No Xivic and 'Uneksija'. I recommend this to anybody who is as heartily sick as I am of reality television programmes, theme bars, people carriers and Harry Potter. Terrific.
-www.fluxeuropa.com/

[ Discography ] 

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Label: Onyxia | Item Code: ONYX 003 | Country: Finland | Year: 2004 | Genre: Experimental

No Xivic - Uneksija Reviews - read/add | Total Reviews ( 0 )
No Xivic - Uneksija Songs / Track Listing

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