MYSTERY SEA 62 | Terje Paulsen | [Coastline]
ARTWORK 
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INTRODUCTORY
WORDS
"Archipelago
Beach
Boat
Mast
Ocean current
Pace
Power
Sail
Slope of naked rock
Skerries
Tide
Wind
Wire
Coastline, where land meets sea."
- Terje Paulsen, June 2010
PRESS RELEASE
Permeated with the duality of raw Nature & harbour,
urban artefacts, Norwegian Terje Paulsen
fathoms his close surroundings
to forge highly sentient organic sound pieces, based on field recordings,
the visceral use of real instruments & found objects...
By doing this, he depicts sort of musical vignettes which are pure snapshots
of Life...
These are intensely personal soundscapes, reflecting physical &
mental states in an almost cathartic way...
Terje, like many artists fuelled by the same essential
motivations is a "ferryman", a go-between, freezing moments
of rare intensity
& exhilaration...
He has been published by himself, a plethora of netlabels (CON-V, Homophoni,
Q-Tone, Rain Music, Resting Bell, Tecnonucleo...), a few labels (Q-Tone,
Tibprod...) and pops up on several compilations (Mandorla, Ripples,
Trente Oiseaux...)...
"Coastline",
a sequel to "Horisont" (MS58) is another deep elemental drift...
Along the rock faces,
half sunken,
we float away,
swayed in the agitation of murky waters,
pulled this way and that by the dominant stream...
Always on the verge,
impermanent amidst the liquid mutations,
we fade, like washed out memories...
Below, reversed out,
the song of a lonely anchor,
scraped metal sighs,
submarine ringing tones...
"Coastline",
our interior sea,
a waterline within,
in touch with the Unseen...
VITAL WEEKLY 744|Frans
De Waard
Earlier this year I reviewed 'Horisont'
by Terje Paulsen, from Norway, and I called him the
new kid on the block, following a string of releases on labels Homophoni,
TecnoNucleo, Q-tone, Resting Bell, Rain Music, Con-V and here again
he returns to Mystery Sea, with a sequel to 'Horisont'. I believed he
was a guitar player, but with these two releases it seems as if he is
more a man of field recordings. I might still be very wrong with that.
Its very much along the lines of 'Horisont', with obscured metal rumble
going on, lots and lots of sound effects, bringing this work quite up
front. Not a work of carefully constructed microsound, but with some
heavy undercurrents of water dripping, boats bumping into the harbor
and all that usual imagery that comes with the territory in the Mystery
Sea world. But Paulsen does a fine job, by adding some
elements from the world of improvised music to it, clanging his metal
(strings of a guitar?) here and there, while keeping the almighty drone
going. That's something a lot of peers wouldn't allow themselves to
do. In that respect this is something of a change. Not a sea change,
but an interesting ripple. Nice one.
vital weekly
WONDERFUL
WOODEN REASONS|Ian
Holloway
Norwegian composer Terje Paulsen
is one the perennial favourites here at WWR. He has a bleakly
immersive musical outlook that I find hugely pleasurable. This
in itself is unusual as I generally hold a preference for more open
forms of drone music but there's just something in Terje's
music that grabs me every time.
Coastline has a nicely organic feel to the majority
of it's constituent sounds with it's core guttural rumble augmented
by sudden bell peals that roll through the shadows. There's not
a great deal of confluence and change within and between tracks as here
Terje seems to have found a vibe he likes and has ridden
it for as long and as far as possible. I don't necessarily think
that's a problem either as it's a vibe I like too and what he's done
with and to it suits it very well indeed. As an album it feels
complete and fulfilling and never lacking.
A thoroughly enjoyable excursion in the company of an always recommended
purveyor of the darker sides of drone.
wonderful wooden reasons
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