Together, Pjusk and Sleep Orchestra evoke a chilly and endless, empty silence, broken only by wind whipping up new snow on the pack ice and the crunching footsteps of vain forays in this direction or that, all leading to more nowhere.
“Pjusk” is one of those wonderful onomatopoeic words whose meaning is roughly approximate to its sound—junk, refuse, nonsense. And yet nothing could be less characteristic of the sound of Norwegian duo Jostein Dahl Gjelsvik and Rune Andre Sagevik, a gelid breeze bearing charmed melodies and drowsy ambient soundscapes, as eminently displayed on Sval or the more recent Solstøv. Drowning in the Sky came about after the duo were introduced to Christopher Pegg, aka Sleep Orchestra, by a mutual friend who has since unfortunately passed and to whom the record is dedicated.
It is appropriate the album appears at roughly the same time searchers have finally accomplished their 166-year-long mission to find the lost Franklin Expedition, which went missing while attempting to chart the Northwest Passage. Frozen in place, mad with hunger, thirst and lead poisoning, the crew perished in the Queen Maud Gulf, drowning in a white landscape where the sea was indistinguishable from the sky.
Together, Pjusk and Sleep Orchestra evoke a chilly and endless, empty silence, broken only by wind whipping up new snow on the pack ice and the crunching footsteps of vain forays in this direction or that, all leading to more nowhere. Chains rattle as if the crew were still climbing the rigging, wind whips through bulrushes poking through the snow. With “Skdiv,” the trio expands to enter post-Jon Hassell territory, featuring Kåre Nymark Jr. on trumpet and Taylor Deupree, who creates a rarefied atmosphere with the help of Kyma programming language. The prolific Pleq remixes the final track (the digital version includes a bonus remix by Christopher Bissonnette) and the CD is tucked into a handsome, pale slide-out drawer.
Drowning in the Sky is available on Dronarivm.
