BJ Nilsen & Stilluppst​eypa — Góða Nótt
The album clicks to life, followed by a chirp of static, and from there the dominant element is a shimmering fog of reverb and cold, digital resonances, which twist in eerie sweeps upward and downward in pitch, at times sounding like a ghoulish chorus singing from within deep waters. They keep to a monochromatic, atonal sound palette, which gives the music a nocturnal feeling, and fits the disturbing cover art (which pictures voyeuristic night-vision photos of girls' legs in fishnets).
One can sense a faint murmer of field recordings, but they are mostly submerged beneath the murk, and the shape of any particular environment never becomes clear. Instead, these tracks have the feeling of a massive expanse with boundaries too distant from one another to be perceived at once.
It never becomes boring, as the music is more active than most ambient music, and the filter sweeps and swells of modulation are gracefully and expertly performed, so the mutation of the texture is consistently organic and fascinating. Skillful use of panning and doppler effects make the listener feel as if massive undersea creatures are passing by, unseen.
The second side is generally texturally thinner and less eventful than the first, and has a droning subsonic pitch which the first does not have, but by the 10 minute mark builds the same sort of formidable dreamlike presence, aided by field recordings of metallic rattling that circle the soundspace. This sound is interrupted by a sudden click and a hiss, which once again slowly forms into a drone before another interruption of distorted contact sounds, in a cyclical building and releasing of energy.
BJ Nilsen & Stilluppsteypa's new LP "Góða Nótt" is a mysterious and deep entry into the dark ambient canon that rewards repeated listening due to its many layers, which prove this recording was a labor of love. Though the soupy mass of sounds found here is not easily penetrated, fans of the genre will be able to peer beneath what at first seems to be monotony into a complex realm with many strange inhabitants