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Mirko Uhlig - Storm: Outside Calm Tamed Cat.#.: AALFREE Price: free Download (ca. 80 MB)
Press info: " ”The great gray beast February had eaten Harvey Swick alive. Buried in the belly of that smothering month, he wondered if he would ever find his way out.” “Storm: Outside Calm Tamed” is a mini-album with a previously unreleased track and can be seen as the direct link between Uhlig’s solo debut “VIVMMI” and the forthcoming successor. The contrast could not be more blatant! “VIVMMI”’s focus was on barely noticeable melody fragments and chary drones. “Storm: Outside Calm Tamed” really lives up to its title’s promise: a heavy and harsh hurricane out of tinitus laughter and noise frazzles - with the listenere in its center. But something seems strange about the scene...for more than a half of the title you believe yourself in a time loop. Additional notes regarding the mp3 re-release: Today I decided to share the second part of the VIVMMI-trilogy "Storm: Outside Calm Tamed" with all my listeners for free - after destroying all physical copies of that mini-album. For some personal reasons. Quien siembra vientos recoge tempestades. Lo hago por ti. Dead winter flowers...what connects each part to the other is the idea of pleasure, total devotion and the abandonment of emotional armament. Forget your house of cards... It was produced in a very dark/desperated/manic state of mind. Very lost and chaotic state of mind. I though it could/would function as some sonic exorcism. At that time I needed something to get rid of some emotional ballast. So deep diving in the murky green ocean that I alsmost missed the treasures at the bottom or rather the rays of sun on water. "Oh, you sentimental fool!" Well - it did not work. It failed. But is still a link in the chain. And still a good piece of music. But: as I said - it’s real heart ballast/trash/rubbish set to music and in my opinion you should not have to pay for rubbish. So again: This piece of work is totally non-presentable for my music. I still see it as a try in sonic excorcism. I wanted to reach that beauty kind of mood at the end of the track. But - I still walk through streams of shit: ankle-deep. So...don’t invite me for a cup of coffee on your white zebra carpet. You’ll regret it - in any way!
Reviews: “[...] Already in the press release, Uhlig says that the new work is to be seen as a transitory one and will appeal to fans of William Basinski and Merzbow – which could be a joke, but it isn’t. Of course, he is not the first one to discover the beauty of noise in its direct form and to recognise that this beauty is not hidden “beneath” its surface as some have somewhat complacently put it. Fact is, noise has no surface, it is infinite and without borders, which is why it is omnipotent in the truest sense of that word (and why it can be so easily abused by kids trying to look mean). But he may be the first to touch upon its frailty. On the outside, this is pure industrial and it would be wrong to even try and relate it to counterpointal techniques, philophical programs or dadaistic ideologies. Of course, this thick cloud swells and ebbs, changes pitch and pulse, tonal colour and distortion. But in its heart, it remains a wild beast or a force of nature, just like you can describe a tornado with equations and physics, but you can not tame it, explain it or laugh in its face. It is the very fact that “Storm” does not conjur up any smart or ironic excuses for its rawness which makes it seem so inpenetrably powerful and attractive. You can not write about this music, without failing to make a point, just like you can not listen to an excerpt of it on MySpace, thinking that you know what to expect. You need to sit this through from the beginning to the end to be able to understand and you need to put all other thoughts and activities aside – in the background, this is as effective as watching a horror movie with the volume muted. Instead, turn up the dial one noth higher and drown your intellect completely. Then, you will be able to feel the tenderness hidden in that one delicate motive, which Uhlig exhibits like a war veteran showing his wounds because they’re the only thing he has got left, besides some memories of better times. And you’ll be able to experience feelings seldomly related to noise: Compassion and the notion of being touched. [...]” Tobias Fischer, Tokafi. To read the full review: www.tokafi.com “It starts with a nicely bewitching electric guitar spiral, you're willing to abandon your body to the flow, then - bang! - Herr Uhlig makes your pacemaker award an extra ball before tilting, for an attack of sweetly furious distortion - more or less the meeting of Lou Reed's "Metal Machine Music" with a poignant melody that William Basinski's distant cousin could have stolen from his archive - hits you on the chin. After a while the melodic hook becomes more evident, even if the sulphuric corrosion that submerges it would make Lasse Marhaug green with envy. Uhlig declares that "for more than half of the title you believe yourself in a time loop", but while I'm listening - TV switched on mute during Moto GP races, outside rainy and cold as in the worst winter days - I just think that I must have some problem if at 43 I still choose to spend my Sunday in such a near-human condition. The distortion grows, so does the instability of my tranquillity; maybe now I see why Mirko refers to a "tamed" calm. To think that our last emails discussed Genesis 1969-1975...Fittingly, the end comes abruptly with disturbed electric piano chords recalling the intro to Peter Gabriel's "Family snapshot". This guy is so unpredictable, you would just adopt him; and since he also says that this record is "about love - not being in love", play this thing loud if you want your partner to leave you without an apparent reason.” Massimo Ricci, Touching Extremes: www.touchingextremes.org
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