Velfaerd — Alt Er Vel
It’s funny, while Ink Runs releases predominantly HNW and related genres, the artwork they employ has more in common with the happy-go-lucky aesthetics of Rainbow Bridge Recordings than doom and gloom. The fold-over cover of Alt Er Vel features a colorful abstract composition consisting of: bold black lines in zipper patterns, pastel colors, and small newspaper clippings painted with hot pink tips. As with all Ink Runs releases, this is extremely limited to 20 pieces. So chances are this is as good as gone!
Alt Er Vel is a near 30 minute track of elemental drone. It’s near static at times, yet never delves into the realm of HNW/ANW. I say “elemental” because it sounds like a field recording(s) of mother nature processed and manipulated. Last summer I had the idea to record a piece of paper hung out my car window while driving down the highway. The bulk of this release sounds strikingly similar to the sounds I captured that summer day. While I can’t say for certain, it sounds like Velfaerd is manipulating recordings of wind. Of course he could just be employing a white noise generator to achieve the same effect. It obviously sounds vaporous and blustering, but there is movement and texture buried within those sounds, achieved by being speed up, slowed down, or processed in other ways. This commences in a near repetitive drone until the 5:30 mark, where the track evolves into a vigorously churning aquatic sound. I don’t get the impression he changed input sources, but attains the rushing sound of liquid through manipulation. A delay perhaps? Soak in an aural representation of flowing rivers of static crashing into rocks and cascading over waterfalls. The sound ebbs and flows and almost sounds as if the track is going to fade out at times, only to increase in volume again and again. At the halfway mark, the track loses it’s aquatic flavor and returns to the piece’s introductory vaporous sounds as it moves through it’s remaining minutes.
I’ll admit, I didn’t particularly care for Alt Er Vel upon first listen. It just didn’t provide the type of sounds I normally find interesting or pleasant to listen to. So I put it down for a while. After returning to it a week later, I have to admit that I’m rather enjoying this the second time around. Perhaps I just have to be in the right frame of mind to appreciate Velfaerd’s sonic brushstrokes, but given some distance, I can say that this grew on me. It’s a worthwhile effort for sure. I’m curious to see what this gent does next.