SVARTSINN "Traces Of Nothingness" CD Reviews

 From The Gothronic webzine (Holland)
The Canadian label Cyclic Law keeps on surprising me in a pleasant way. They were the ones to release for example Kammarheit, Karjalan Sissit, Sophia and Arcana. With these names you can already imagine a little bit what to expect and that is - how it's put so eloquently on the website - obscure ambient-industrial soundscapes. And instead of 'obscure' maybe 'nordic' could have been used too ...
On the website it says that 'Traces of nothingness' is the third part of a trilogy, with 'Devouring consciousness' and 'Of darkness and re-creation' being this CD's predecessors. Sadly I haven't heard those other ones, so I will have to review this CD as stand-alone. Is that a bad thing? I don't think so, because the symbiosis of drones, ambient, neo-classical and emotions on this CD is very, very strong.
In most reviews you hear me complain about ambient tracks being "too short" so just before the mood sets, you're being torn out of a trance. This album doesn't have that effect, even though 6 out of the 8 tracks are under 6 minutes. For me the most gorgeous track is the longest one ('Misanthropic odyssey') but in no way the other tracks are less because of the playtime.
'Traces of nothingness' is an instant classic. We will just have to wait until Svartsinn writes the fourth part of this trilogy.

 From The Virus magazine (U.S.A.)
“Traces Of Nothingness” sounds like an exercise in existential mayhem, and the inclusion of a quote in the CD booklet by philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre certainly adds to the philosophical flavor. As with the abstract nature of dark ambient music, the narrative can be left to interpretation. However, in this case there are vital clues that do tell a story. I gather that this CD is about a journey, albeit one devoid of physical mobility. It’s more of the sedentary kind of journey, perhaps due to exhaustion, where one walks away from the habitual confines of daily existence by simply shutting one’s eyes and blotting out the world. But as the mind wanders, the reality of one’s past and present, no matter the quality, still influence the future, even if that future is fantastical and temporary in nature. So, when the bubbling horrors of a forgotten underground lake and the distant echoes of some undetermined origin manifest, you begin to realize that these sounds are not geological in nature, but the sound of one’s own body in a heightened state of anxiety. While lost in dreams, everything seems real. On the track “Lost In Reveries” there is the introduction of a simple repetitive melody for the first time. The question then becomes: is this melody a memory of the past, or an intrusive element from the present that has infiltrated the dream state? On “Through Apathetic Eyes” the music takes on a brooding and nightmarish quality, and the following track, “All The Colours Are Fading” seems to align itself with resignation. One can conclude that “…But The Fire Burns No More” represents mental and spiritual death. The aptly-titled bonus track “Emptiness Is Form” is actually a remixed version of “Form Is Emptiness,” which originally appeared on the SDC/Tesco compilation CD “A Final Testimony”. It fits well here as a postscript.
8/10 Michael Casano, 05 Mar 2006

 From The Moving Hands magazine (Sweden)
Svartsinn is Jan Roger Pettersen from Norway and the name is Norwegian and means something like “a dark mind”, translated by me. A fitting name for this dark ambient band I must say. With low and cold soundscapes he brings us utter darkness and sadness and with no pardon. This doesn’t only give me the dark and mellow feeling I usually get from dark ambient but also the sombre one that sometimes is quite nice to feel. Low keyboard parts mixed with even lower ambient noises and the sound of winds really gets you freezing to the bone. I like the calmness that streams out of my loudspeakers and I’m having a hard time writing while listening to this because I just want so sit and close my eyes and dream away, this music is quite demanding and it brings so much to the listener. In the Svartsinn biography of Mr Pettersen it says that the first time he heard dark ambient music he felt it was his kind of music and that it was this he wanted to create, when listening to Traces of Nothingness I can’t more then agree.
/Johannes van der Meer

 From The Ikonen magazine (Germany)
Verglichen mit Gustaf Hildebrands neuem Werk erscheint diese im schönen Digipak erschienene CD geradezu persönlich und intim. Sogar melancholische Melodien schleichen sich hier ein, geheimnisvolle Vocal-Samples - Svartsinn aus Norwegen erschaffen einen schwebenden Soundtrack mit nachdenklichen und absolut aufregenden Momenten. Geleitet werden die 'Spuren des Nichts' von einem Sartre-Zitat, man sieht sich also in philosophischer Traditionen, existenzialistisch zwischen dem 'Sein' und dem 'Nichts' zerrissen. Titel wie "No Passage to the Innermost', 'Misanthropic Odyssey' oder 'All the Colours Are Fading' sprechen eine deutlich zerquält Sprache und nutzen das Medium Ambient offenbr mit größtem Effekt als weltanschauliche Kommunikationsform. 'Emptiness is Form' heißt der letzte Bonustrack der CD und trifft die Idee sehr gut: Allerdings - solange Leere wirklich Form sein kann, hebt sie sich selbst auf und schafft Raum für 'Etwas'. Das ist der Funken Hoffnung, der zwischen die düsteren Klangwolken hier schimmert.
Auch Svartsinn stehen musikalisch in renommierter Tradition, Track 2 lässt gar Erinnerungen an Popol Vuhs großartiges NOSFERATU-Thema wach werden. 'Traces of Nothingness' ist 'True Norge'-Black Ambient und letztlich spirituell getriebener Isolationismus. Ein Meisterstück schwarzmalerischer Klangkunst, subtil und klangtechnisch ausgefeilt.

  From The Morpheus webzine (U.K.)
STYLE: Beatless, desolate dark ambient soundscapes. Traces of Nothingness opens with the words "It lives ... in the dark ... something in the dark" - an appropriate introduction to this collection of brooding thunderclouds. Whale-like groans and distorted, distant impacts populate this world of shadow and bubbling ooze - there is at times the sound of a colossal drum pounding a broken beat, there are huge air movements and amorphous disturbances. On a number of tracks tonal material bleeds in briefly toward the end - drones, strings, humming textures - strikingly beautiful against the vast bleakness of the background atmospheres.
 
MOOD: Heavy, tenebrous and moody - Svartsinn unapologetically aims at a disquieting sound. This cinematic composition is not so much malevolent, but uneasy, creating a sense of enclosed enormity. Sounds approaching voices, deep and garbled add to a strong organic air - these could be human, could be mechanical - obscure, uncertain and drowning.
 
ARTWORK: Traces of Nothingness comes in a tasteful digipack - monochrome - flooded with black. Cyclic Law know their packaging - each CD feels like a unique piece. Imagery consists of a series of night-time photographs bedraggled with briars - text is a soft grey on the jet backdrop. A quote from Sartre inhabits one gatefold panel - within are composition details, thanks and contact info.
 
OVERALL: The Norwegian term Svartsinn apparently means 'black mind' or 'black soul and is the working title of musician Jan Roger Pettersen. Svartsinn's third album (and conclusion to a trilogy) comes after a two-year gap and is again released on Cyclic Law. There are eight relatively short pieces with a re-mix of Emptiness is Form by Northhaunt concluding the CD. Promotional material explains that this album "is simply the reaction, result and the path ahead in this ongoing, seemingly endless darkness. A slightly more melodic, sad and obscure side of Svartsinn that still keeps the cold and dark atmosphere that defines his sound." Like many of Cyclic Law's releases Svartsinn will appeal to a specific audience - try the samples on the website if you're unsure. 

WHO WILL LIKE THIS ALBUM: If you enjoy other Cyclic Law artists - Svartsinn maintains the focus ... dense, shady nightscapes crawling with atmosphere. More melodic than some of the other albums of the genre - but any melody here is carefully underplayed.
 
From The NecroWeb webzine (Germany)
"Traces Of Nothingness" ist das dritte Album des norwegischen Dark-Ambient-Projekts Svartsinn. Der Albumname ist Programm, und so präsentieren sich die Songs größtenteils sehr zurückhaltend. Nur vereinzelt gibt es Elemente, die den Hörer fordern und sich in den Vordergrund drängen, um bewusst wahrgenommen zu werden, was den Zugang zum Material etwas erschwert. Mit tiefen Drones als Grundelement kreiert Svartsinn eine überaus düstere, wenn auch minimalistische Atmosphäre, die stellenweise von leichten Melodiebögen aufgelockert wird, so zum Beispiel im Mittelteil von "Lost In Reveries" oder "...But The Fire Burns No More". Gerade diese Stellen sind die Highlights des Albums, aber leider nicht representativ, und so wandern die Songs meist durch recht ähnlich anmutende dunkle Täler, nur um hin und wieder einen kleinen Blick aus dem Korridor frei zu geben. Das soll nun keineswegs heißen daß "Traces Of Nothingness" ein schlechtes Album ist, denn das ist es keineswegs, allerdings wird es sich durch seinen eher unauffälligen Aufbau nicht im musikalischen Gedächtnis des Dark-Ambient-Fans festsetzen können. Dazu müsste Svartsinn etwas mehr aus sich heraus gehen und den Hörer gezielt mit etwas dominanteren Klängen ansprechen. Dadurch daß man als Hörer kaum greifbare Elemente zu hören bekommt, degradiert sich "Traces Of Nothingness" selbst zur Hintergrundmusik, für einen audiophilen Vollgenuss reicht es leider nicht.

From The Sonic Energy webzine (Austria)
The word Svartsinn is Norwegian, and directly translated to english it would mean something like black mind or black soul. This is Jan Roger Pettersen, aka Svartsinns third full-length album, and just like his second offering "Of Darkness and Re-Creation" this is released on the Canadian ambient-label Cyclic Law. This is an album that will demand it's time from you if you want to be rewarded. It requiers attention and you have to be a motivated listener to dig in to this stuff. Let's see what hides inside for the patient listener...
  01: Traces of Nothingness
"It lives...in the dark....something in the dark"... The opening track of the album starts off with a frightened voice - one of the few voicesamples we find on this album. The atmosphere is freezin, ice-cold and pitch black. The main elements present are long, stretched soundscapes - and every now and then there are hints of subtle melodies.
  02: No Passage to the innermost...
We continue with floating, but the atmosphere shifts somewhat in the second track of the album. It opens with two distinct sources of sound morphing together. The sound of bubbeling water - like someone is drowning or something, together with something that might be heavy pounding on some sort of steel barrell. The soundscapes here are somewhat more melodic than on the first track. It's gentle and soft, and yet it's also pretty harsh at times.
  03: Lost in reveries
This is the sort of track I find it hard to describe, but enjoy listening to. It's like a constantly shifting collage of sounds, there are noe real referencepoints here. It has a rather "metallic" feel to it, it sounds like your sitting in some giant tin-can listening to the storms sweeping by outside. It would be easy to use a bunch of clichès about how his nordic, arctic background must have influenced him here, and they would also be quite fitting. It's dark, it's cold and it's quite a fascinating ride.
  04: Misanthropic Odyssey
This is a more majestic ride, and has a more organic feeling. If I were to characterize this in any way I'd say this is ambient-musics answere to the forest-trance. Quite mystical, filled with little, weird and subtle noises together with an evershifting almost alien melody dribing the track. Lots of substance and change all the way.
  05: Through apatic eyes
this track is most of all about mood. It's scary, and when I say that I mean it in the true sense of the word - it actually scares you! This is a constantly changing collage of sounds slowly moving around a set of permanently present components. It also builds in intensity and have several "peaks" throughout. There is also a very obscure and fraky voice-sample present, hypnotizing you with a message of "Cannibalism...occultism....satanism...beastiality...mutilation
...murder...vampireism". I know it sounds like cheeze, but bellieve me when I say that this is no such thing.
  06: All the colours are fading
This is one of the more minimal offerings on the album. very One set of synth-sweeps are morphed and changed throughout the track, and there are fewer things going on in the background. It's constantly drifting sound is actually very calming, very relaxing, and this is perhaps the "warmest" track on the album. To avoid making it too cozy, Svartsinn makes us listen to some sadistic screaming far, into the distance a few times.
  07: ...But the fire Burns no More
This is by far my favourite track on the album..Filled with all kinds of atmospheres, feeling and emotion this is a wonderfull, though a bit too short ambient piece of brilliance. The track feels very fluid, filled with liquids and water. It begins rather warm, again suprisingly cozy. Before you know it however the dark forces have completely surrounded you. There are hints of voices present, but you can't really make out what their saying..
  08: Bonus: Emptiness is Form
The last track of the album is called "Emptiness is Form" and the title is quite fitting. It begins as almost complete silence, you hear a noise far in to the distance. It grabs your attention - you have to focus and concentrate in order to hear what it is. It grows, gets stronger, and if you play this loud enough your entire room will soon enough be resonating in bass.Then it just fades out and leaves you in silence.
  Final remarks:
Cyclic law is one of my favourite labels when it comes to dark, ambient music and luckilly enough Svartsinn did not dissapoint me. As I've allready mentioned, though - this isn't an album for everyone, and it's ceirtanly not an album suitable for any occation. It's quite demanding and takes some time as well, it's not an instantly catchy or easily digestible album. Bottom line: if you enjoy your doses of beatless ambient and also has a weak spot for the dark side - do not hessitate! - Tomas (Psychedelic Mustache)