A Night of Atlantic Alliances: Bardspec (members of Enslaved, Today is the Day), IIVII (A Storm of Light, Ex-Red Sparrowes)

BardSpec is the Ambient project/band from Enslaved composer/guitarist Ivar Bj??rnson. With Steve Austin on guitars/effects, David Hall presenting the live visual aspect of the project and artwork/imagery created by Josh Graham.

BardSpec combines stirring, hallucinatory synth-sounds with mercurial guitar effects and hypnotic rhythms that navigate illusory landscapes. Field recordings, and other found-sounds also drift and evaporate into the ether. Working intuitively with these elements and with sharpened senses, attuned to inner impulses, this is immersive music, that can exist anywhere, and anytime within the minds of the listener.

Whilst BardSpec might essentially be the same brain and personality making the music, compared to Enslaved, it is a widely different entity. Thematically and sonically, BardSpec is about minimising, subtracting and meditating upon the simplest essence of ???things???; the single points: exemplified through the song titles, like ???Bone???, ???Salt??? and so on, the basic elements and foundations that make up the whole. There is an element of ???space??? in the music, and the artwork, as a representation of the inner workings of the mind and the subconscious.

Inspired by the German masters Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schultze, Conrad Schnitzler as well as contemporary ambient music like Norwegian one-man-band Biosphere and abstract modern electronic music like When (Norwegian also), as well as the electronic/industrial-driven metal like Godflesh. Ivar describes the appeal and trance-inducing aspects of such music to him, ???I remember listening to Richard Burmer and his album ???Mosaic??? from 1984. I thought I fell asleep but I was in a semi-lucid state where I still registered music ??? but not much else. At the end of side A there???s an explosion so violent and extreme that I jumped two feet into the air and was totally shocked. The weird thing is, I couldn???t remember it being there. When I revisited the music again it was just a little ???thud???. I was just experiencing a trance so deep into the music that this deviation from the pattern and frequencies in the foregoing half hour of monotony totally shocked me. I loved it!???


???Score for a trip into the great black beyond.??? ??? Noisey:

???These soundtracks to the exploration of the unknown caress the unfathomable depths of space and time through sound with a haunting, alien dread countering an unshakable sense of reverence.??? ??? About.com

IIVII (ivy) is the enigmatic inter-galactic solo project spearheaded by visual artist, multi-instrumentalist and composer Josh Graham. Focusing on sonically engulfing and moody soundscapes, layered with a science-fiction edge, IIVII traverses genre and explores elements of drone, classical, ambient, electronica, and vaporwave. A founding member of Red Sparowes, Battle of Mice, and A Storm of Light, IIVII has allowed Graham to strip away the bombast and distorted guitars, and channel the intensity and dread through subtle orchestration and manipulation of dense sonic atmospheres.

Live shows mix visuals, guitar, analogue and digital keyboards, cassette loops, and more. The Postrocker.nl review for the DUNK Festival states, ???Transcendental soundscapes featuring stunning imagery from outer space, this was hallucinating. I sat down in the Stargazer tent and after 10 minutes, I drifted away in a slumber with great soundscapes touching my ears. After a half hour, the set finished without a warning and the whole floor immediately awoke out of a deeply induced trance. A great diversion from the loud, up-tempo postrock on the main stage. This could go on for hours, but it had to end sometimes. A beautiful orchestra of ambient sci-fi for a movie that will never be.???