Absurd Beauty in the Theatre of Noise
“The term Dadaism must be used with caution – it easily risks becoming a cliché and trampling disrespectfully on its origins. Nevertheless, it’s hard to avoid Dada when listening to The Swamp, created by Norwegian experimental composers Maja Ratkje, Torstein Slåen, and Sigurd Ytre-Arne. The album is a 40-minute chaotic mirror of our times, shaped by merciless improvisation, noise drones, and Ratkje’s absurd vocalizations. The music is raw, rancid, and deliberately un-beautiful – a constant stream of manipulated field recordings, reminiscent of a horror film foley studio. Bells, metallic clanks, white noise, and industrial sounds are warped together, driven by a syncopated, menacing rhythm and an underlying fuzz drone. Most fascinating is Ratkje’s voice (…)” Simon Heggum, Seismograf 12.06.25
“(…)This thought-provoking, get-to-know-you meeting celebrates a subversive, anti-conformist, and anti-bullshit spirit inherited from decades of playing jazz, free-improv, and contemporary music. It invites the listener to a wild party where furniture is broken, wine glasses are smashed, and walls are defaced with graffiti, but the living room remains more beautiful than the night before. Ratkje’s urgent, fragmented, processed yet expressive chants and spells, Slåen’s effects-laden, thorny electric guitar, and Ytre-Arne’s industrial-like, noisy electronic beats are condensed into a streamy stew pot. This trio rebels against common structures, sounds, and familiar narratives and syntax and improvises new songs that flow seamlessly between captivating noisy textures, industrial drones, techno beats, and surprising, seductive, and romantic harmonies (listen to the last piece, “Lullaby for Trembling Hearts”). (…)” Eyal Hareuveni, Percorsi Musicali 19.05.25