SILENCE TEACHES YOU HOW TO SING

Moving from black and folk metal to instrumental and moody soundtracks, at this point Ulver had finally come out into an electronic style. When they released their acclaimed and excellent 'Perdition City', everyone was interested in where they would go next. However, during the sessions for that album, Kristoffer Rygg was experimenting around with taking things to a subtle and ambient place, and during that time, recorded music that was not intended for that album, but was to be released separately, mainly because of the ambient and experimental nature of the music. This music filled up two EPs and it was decided to release them in limited editions. Since that time, the demand to make them more readily available, the two EPs were combined onto one disc (called 'Teachings in Silence', again in a limited edition, which was later released more widely a few years later. However, the two separate EPs have since been made available for download in 2013 and are now easily available on Bandcamp.

'Silence Teaches You How to Sing' is one of these two EPs. On this one, there is only one long track with the same name as the EP. This track, however, is obviously made up of shorter sections that pass along through time like a lesson in how to make a combination of music and atmosphere come together in new and interesting ways. The first 5 minutes is quite atmospheric and less structured, but all the while, it is interesting and meaningful while being moody and colorful. After a while, keys tend to pick up a repeating melody with less of a free form feel, but glitchy noise and interesting sounds keep it sounding like it is moving forward. More textural changes continue, but each change is built upon some type of structure, sometimes more noticeable than others. Even broken pieces of vocal sounds are added in and for a short time, tend to lead the passage of time as it continues on, but then a smoothly phrased wordless vocal loop is produced while glitches and short musical phrases play. As usual with this EP though, change is inevitable.

Both EPs use both repetition and unpredictability together very effectively. However, while 'Silence the Singing' relies more on longer repetitions and has a slightly more structured feel to it, 'Silence Teaches You How to Sing' tends to have more variation in its single track that lasts just over 24 minutes. However, there is much less dynamic inflection in this EP, but that doesn't mean it isn't just as interesting. On this EP, you can expect more change in texture and style as it can happen more often, where on the companion EP, the three songs are distinct and more focused. Either way, the ambience/noise is effective and brilliant, and just like the other EP, this is better experienced through headphones. If it is still possible to get the combined EPs on one album (which, by the way, is called 'Teachings in Silence'), then that is the best way to get them, as they tend to work better together. But, if not, then definitely download the two EPs and put them together into one experience.