Rien — The White Tape
The White Tape finds Rien at its most minimal, sparse, yet at the same time eventful. The release finds the Swedish textured noise project dropping all of its wall-noise traits, for a work that is extremely pared-back, yet at the same time shifting in both its textural make-up and structural movement. Here on Ominous Recordings is a C90/ digital download- sadly the tapes long gone, but the download is of course still available.
Rien( aka Stockholm based Johan Strömvalll Hammarstedt) has been active since 2016, offering up distinctively reserved, yet wonderfully nuanced take on the noise form. To start with it was very much in the minimal walled noise bracket- but with each new release the sound has been pushed away from the wall noise genre, and with this new release all the ties have been severed. Sure if you enjoy textured noise you’ll still ( hopefully) get/ enjoy what’s going on here, but what the project is doing now is best described as minimal noise composition, which is eventful and at points tense, but extremely reduced.
The white and plain C90 cassette is presented in a tape hugging baggie- this features a pink paper inlay with handwritten text on- all in all, it nicely fits with the other Rien releases, with its theme-less/ sparse look.
Though this is a C90- the same track plays on both side, but this is not an issue- as the track is decidedly complex/ shifting in its minimal flow, so playing the whole tape in a go never gets boring. Texturally what we find here is a blend of very slowly moving static grain ripple, tighter and more jarring flicks, low-key rustle, moments of even pop and click, sudden showers of crackle, and a reduced blend of hiss and snap. Hammarstedt arranges the elements in a compelling and rewarding manner- with silence been used for great effect- but the track never becomes just random noise- as there is clearly both craft and composition going on here.
Since it started I’ve enjoyed all of Rien's output, and The White Tape is no exception. The release sees Hammarstedt carrying on with the projects slow-but-sure development, and once again severing up a most satisfying and engaging example of static noise art…as always I look forward to hearing what he does on his next release, and all in all, Rien most certainly is one of the more consistent projects within/ connected to the wall-noise genre.