PJUSK — Tele

After two praiseworthy albums on New York imprint 12k – 2007’s Sart and 2010’s Sval – it seems only fitting that Norwegian ambient duo Pjusk should have been approached by Alessandro Tedeschi, head of Italian label Glacial Movements, for a third offering that follows in the footsteps of its predecessor by exploring the themes of nature and glacial solitudes, both topics dear to their newfound home.

Polar wastelands and sub-arctic horizons are themes that have already been covered with more or less success by other proponents of the dark ambient genre, mostly with the help of a sonic tapestry that is now familiar: deafening easterlies freezing the soul, monstrous blocks of blue ice crashing against each other, the mighty sound of waves in the midst of a raging tempest or the distant sonar of a blue whale migrating South. The Big Wide North seems to lend itself naturally to a kind of grandiosity (or, one could say, pomposity in the case of some grimly frost-bitten black metal acts) that calls for a larger-than-life aural framework.

Tele (a Norwegian word meaning frozen underground water), on the other hand, is an album that exhibits a decidedly subtler approach, one in which Rune Sagevik and Jostein Dahl Gjelsvik ensnare us into a twilight of meditative numbness that is as far removed from the above-mentioned grandeur as is conceivable without venturing too far off. Here, the listener is not so much fighting its way against the raging elements as contemplating them from a distance through some icicle-covered window while a log fire crackles in the back. Granted, the reflective mood that prevails throughout is interrupted at intervals by deeper and darker passages that seem to hint at what lies out there in the cold, starry night (Gneis) but, rest assured, they prove nothing more than faint reminiscences and are never strong enough to actually make you want to leave the safety of your log-hut.

In what seems a very intelligent move, the Norwegian duo has decided to appeal to the listener’s imagination rather than force-feed them pre-conceived recipes that might work for a while but wouldn’t give the album a long-lasting quality which already manifests itself after a couple of cursory listens. True, sonically, the album is on the whole gentler and warmer than some might like given the topic at hand but it should be given a chance if only for its refreshing take on a badly beaten horse and those on the look-out for more abstract emotions and not afraid to tread lesser-explored paths would therefore be well-advised to devote some of their time (and hard-earned cash!) on this release, available in both digital and physical formats.