Arne Nordheim has enjoyed relative success, at least in his native Norway, as a composer, but his early electronic music remained largely ignored. One of Rune Grammofon's first projects upon its inception was to release a collection of his electronic works from the late '60s under the title
Electric. The release triggered a rediscovery of the music and had an immediate influence on the young generation of experimental electronica artists. Working as a tribute and a testimony,
Nordheim Transformed combines remixes by
Geir Jenssen, aka
Biosphere, and
Helge Sten, aka
Deathprod (a solo producer and member of the quartet
Supersilent). The key word is in the title: transformed.
Biosphere and
Deathprod don't merely remix pieces like "Colorazione" and "Warszawa"; they have dusted them down and given them a whole new treatment. Early electronic music wears its age on its face: the sound of early tone generators and the crude reverb and editing technique are all unmistakable. But under the hands of these two they fade away completely. Both artists have a penchant for dreamy tunes that allow a minimal, leitmotiv-like fragment to repeat and become a melody while noise-peppered textures evolve in the background.
Deathprod has produced the most ambient tracks. A bit warmer and finely detailed, they offer a nice alternative to the light melancholia of
Biosphere's music. This is all very remote from
Arne Nordheim's sound world, but it makes a pleasant album in its own right, an album fans of
Hazard,
Oren Ambarchi, and the lighter side of
Fennesz will enjoy. ~ François Couture