John Wiese and Lasse Marhaug – Continuous Loop Sheep 1997 – 2017

Pica Disk

In 1997, Norwegian noise-general Lasse Marhaug and US noise-army royalty John Wiese planned to do some recordings for a split cassette. The music was recorded on 6 June at the exact same time, but on opposite sides of the Atlantic, and as they say with “a form of musical telepathy”. They also agreed to base the recordings on continuous loops. The recordings were made, but the cassette was never released and the material remained forgotten. However, Marhaug found the recordings in 2014 and digitized the master. The two artists agreed to wait until the recording was exactly twenty years and edit each other’s material down to 7″ single length, making it a two-decade long telepathic collaboration.

Being telepathic, one would think it could come out as some kind of meditative brain food. Well, if you are into brutal, full-on, all-in wide noise, then you are in for a treat. Nothing careful about the output, as the two edits are ground upon each other’s palette of sound-attitude from the handcrafted masonry of hell. I found only one or few seconds of low-key, almost singular sounds in between to rest the ears, but then they go on with the massive onslaught.

Engines barking, steaming and grinding its way into a distant darkness; or fun, if that is your cup of tea. Quite enjoyable, I thought, flipping sides over and over, looking for more, wanting this to be longer than a couple of minutes each side.

-Ronny Wærnes-