Deaf Center
Owl Splinters

THE REVIEW

The fog loomed heavily over everything. It seemed there was no escape, it seemed impossible that Deaf Center could reach the gloomy leaden scenarios of "Pale ravine". Six years of waiting. During this long span of time, "Pale ravine" has strengthened, becoming increasingly essential.

Then came "Owl splinters", the second chapter in Deaf Center's career, that of Otto Totland and Erik Skodvin, both Norwegians. The two embark once again on slow marathons against the darkness. Every sound, every electronic and piano reverb holds its fundamental importance in the architecture's economy of the tracks. Rarely does an album seem to be so thoughtfully composed, considered in every small chromatic shade, which is rare for an ambient work.

In the forty minutes of "Owl splinters", we once again immerse ourselves with fatality into the chaos of contrasting feelings that Deaf Center generates naturally, providing a pleasant sensation of simplicity. Sonic holes, silences, strings, piano, vibrations, post-industrial breaths, spectral glances of field recordings, noises. Everything contributes to creating that world shrouded in darkness that the duo also expresses in the fleeting splash of color on the cover.

This sinister planet opens its doors with "Divided", all too spectral, governed by loops of infinite evocative power, then destroyed with fragility by the tremendously melancholic and abysmal notes of Totland's piano in "Time spent". A trip toward the unknown culminating in "The day I would never have", a divine distorting comedy toward the low tide of its last two concluding minutes. Finally, everything focuses and evolves into "Hunted twice", a wicked and sweet double game that leaves one ecstatic, the funeral chant of that other world that Skodvin and Totland are able to create.

It's time to return to our world, the real one. The more I look at it, the more I realize how ugly it is. Better to dive back into the distant noisy tar sea of Owl splinters. Then at the bottom, find "Pale ravine" and brush the sand off it...

1. "Divided" (4:23)
2. "Time Spent" (2:09)
3. "New Beginning (Tidal Darkness)" (6:18)
4. "The Day I Would Never Have" (10:42)
5. "Animal Sacrifice" (4:33)
6. "Fiction Dawn" (2:32)
7. "Close Forever Watching" (7:54)
8. "Hunted Twice" (4:46)