Independant Publishing House
MDTS01 (2010)
20 minute, double sided cassette.
About the artist: Talvihorros is an experimental composer from London, UK exploring the possibilities of the guitar. His compositions venture into the fields of ambient, modern classical, drone, post-rock and folk but dont fall into the cliches associated with any of these genres.
Old and broken equipment and recording techniques are favoured over new and modern tools. Both acoustic and electric guitars are layered with organ, synthesizer, mandolin, radio frequencies and various percussion instruments to create dense collages of sound, sometimes melodic, sometimes challenging but always captivating.
Live Talvihorros performs solely with electric guitar and effects pedals.
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”The first side serves up a crepuscular, texture heavy soundscape where twanging guitars voice melancholy themes amidst fields of granular noise and turbulent field elements that occasionally encroach upon the track’s otherwise peaceful ambiance. Imagine those beautiful, sombre passages that appeared during Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s magnificent twenty-minute suites when the band wasn’t tearing it up and you’re close to what Chatwin’s up to in the release’s opening half. Intense and doom-laden it is, and all the more appealing for being so.
Perpetuating the stormy feel of the first half, the slightly more plaintive second brings organ into the spectral fold, along with murmuring voices and other shuddering sounds. Though electric guitars push their way through the haze and gradually come into focus alongside a percussive-driven episode of quasi-post-rock character, Chatwin, true to form, eschews bombast for something subtler and ultimately more affecting.
That it’s only twenty minutes in length doesn’t prevent Let Us Be Thankful We Have Commerce from registering as material rich in evocative atmosphere and personality. More significantly, it testifies further to how distinctive the music is that Chatwin’s issuing under the Talvihorros name.
– Ron Schepper, Textura