Ulver — Silence Teaches You How To Sing EP

So far, the circumstances concerning this release's distribution have given birth to far more discussion than the actual music itself. Maybe because so few people apperantly have heard this EP yet.

It's no secret at all that this EP was limited to 2000 units, and it's no secret either that the distribution of those 2000 has been far from satisfactory. But let's try to nudge the microscope handles a bit, and move the focus to the binary codes burned into the 2000 silver discs instead.

The whole EP, including passages of silence - as the title would imply - lasts 24 minutes and seven seconds. There is no tracklisting on the back; this being the result of the EP sporting only the one song that names the release. But in reality it isn't a whole, solid song. A better description would be 24 minutes consisting of a number of musical passages morphing into each other: a musical piece enters the scene, progresses, grows, expands, and then fades as the next contestant moves to the stage. The same piece, once gone, will never be played again in the rest of those 24 minutes.

OK, now: where's the silence and where's the singing? Well, for those of you who remember the track "Of Wolves And Withdrawal" on another Jester-released EP, you will recall that although there was never complete silence on that track, the minimalistic design of the song made it feel very... silent. Although what we have here isn't Of Wolves And Withdrawal pt. II (and thank heavens for that), a lot of the passages still have the same compressed sound to them. Which is the only point I found bothersome about the EP, in fact.

"But, but, does the Trickster sing? Does he?" would be a logical point to follow up. That really does depend on your idea of "singing". His voice is, at times, present, yes. However, the only sounds it enriches the EP with are distant humming and "aaah"'s. This release isn't really designed for real vocals, either. It would flaw the transparency.

So the barometer stands still on four. I'm not giving it this score because I think it deserves four; I'm giving it the score because I don't think it deserves five. The actual value would be closer to five than to four.

And I'm still trying to learn how to sing.