Supersilent
1-3

How free can music be? How "pure" can the creative act of a musician be, in light of humanity's centuries-old, millennia-old "global" musical tradition? Is it possible to talk about musical "novelty" in today's reality, where any band can offer their creations to anyone without limits and advertising excesses create 'next big things', incredible masterpieces, and never-before-heard ultra-experimenters at every turn?

Supersilent apparently thought there's still a way (besides not giving a damn, which might work, but also might not), and so they have come together (Arve Henriksen, a trumpet player known for beautiful solo albums, Helge Sten, known for the dark ambient project deathprod and here dedicating to 'audio virus', Ståle Storløkken on keyboards and Jarle Vespestad on drums), since 1997, in Norway, to create their new musical language. The approach is as radical as ever: even the name is a whole program, but there's also the rumor (never denied) that the four never communicate between one recording session or concert and the next (session or concert), the total lack of interviews from the band, only three promo photos depicting them together while not playing (they're not very handsome), and above all the albums: determined by mere numerals (1, 2, 3, and so on) with the songs doing the same: 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 2.1, 2.2, with the covers, all with the same identical and bare graphic style (only the background color changes)... we've already grasped some of the intents of these four half-geniuses. Communication is reduced to zero, unless it's communication between the instruments. These four individuals are so non-existent, when not playing, that they might even make us doubt.

Everything is resolved in the performance, in the musical act, in the interaction between the instruments: thus, the musical language of Supersilent is nothing but a continuous dialogue, a building and destroying together (or alone), a placing oneself towards others in a constantly new way. In search of what? I couldn't say. Perhaps self-referentiality reaches infinite levels here (in fact, there is nothing to refer to but only a continuous, immutable "novelty") but to my ears (and my mind) this infinite 'moving towards' is exciting enough to release rivers of endorphins down my nervous system (to be clear, I love endorphins).

Let's get to the point (solid point?): Supersilent "1-3" is the first delivery of the quartet, released in 1997 for the excellent Rune Grammofon (to which Supersilent are permanently settled), and as the name suggests it contains the discs 1, 2, and 3. The serial listening is devastating: the amount of sound cues is nothing short of monolithic, the effect is alienating and unsettling. Each disc, each track is an entire world to explore far and wide (more and more times, to reveal new chic things each time), the pulses can be jazz, noise, trip-hop, even rock if you like, noisy, minimalist or maximalist, but what do these names matter? We are exploring something unknown.

A true monument (to what I can't say), this triple album represents the first indelible scar left by Supersilent on modern musical culture. To those intrigued by it, but perhaps not having a strong stomach, I recommend starting with the excellent "6" (probably their best album), but for the brave, you can also start from here. Beware, it's a dirty war. And it's worth it.