Lasse Marhaug – The Great Silence (Troniks) 2007
I have a stressful job. The things I see on a day to day basis are disturbing and sometimes pretty traumatic. Sleep has been pretty variable for the last couple of years as things I encounter during the day sometimes revisit me at night. In the last year I’ve found walking home from work pretty helpful. Something to do with serotonin levels or something. During those walks I find that some albums have an almost therapeutic effect. In the past I’ve mainly listened to Merzbow although in the last couple of months Daniel Menche and Kevin Drumm’s Gauntlet has been working a trick. I find extreme noise soothing. It cuts me off from the traffic noise and outside world and almost scrubs clean the pile of crap that sits in my head so by the time I get home I’m ready to re-engage with the world.
Maybe this is why the title of The Great Silence makes perfect sense to me. On an objective letter the title is nonsense because The Great Silence contains some of most brutal and primitive noise I’ve ever heard. Walls of static and distorted electronic abuse which doesn’t let up. This is pure white-hot noise and an album I’ve enjoyed for the past couple of weeks. For a comparison there are some similarities with Merzbow’s work from the early to mid-1990’s yet my interaction with this record had me thinking whether records like The Great Silence are an ultimate, extreme version of drone. The noise doesn’t change much over the three lengthy tracks. There are no Merzbow “rate of change” comparisons here. Maybe what Marhaug does here is a form of power ambience. This is the first Marhaug solo record I’ve heard. I’m not sure whether it is reflective of his other stuff but as a stand alone record for someone looking for a noise record at the more relentless end of the scale then The Great Silence is one to track down.
Ducks Battle Satan 
May 31, 2010 at 3:55 am
Definitely an intense record. He has heaps of free mp3s for download from his site, which are much more varied in sound.
July 29, 2010 at 6:03 pm
This is a great one indeed, but “The Shape Of Rock To Come” is still my favourite Marhaug album.
BTW, there is also a great noise|rock album by “Puma Marhaug” entitled “Fist Full Of Knuckles” (released last year on Knuckleman Records). Puma are Norwegian chaotic noise rockers (in the strict sense of the word), this LP is them + Marhaug spicing it up with his electronics. Great album.
April 5, 2011 at 11:33 am
I’ve just had my hands on this great album. Needless to say, it has become one of my favourite noise records… can’t stop listening to this huge fuck of distortion! I’ve spent my last three weeks listening to raw norsk black metal so I tought a norwegian dose of noise would have been a natural follow up. I think the word “ethnic” does not fit here 😀