Released
1998
Label
Cold Spring
Reviewed by
Michael Lund
Contact
Cold Spring
87 Gloucester Ave.
Delapre, Northampton
NN4 9PT, England
Visit
Last Edit/Update
22 maj, 1998
Turbund Sturmwerk
TURBUND STURMWERK
Track Listing
0. Sic Transit
SALVATION THROUGH BLOOD
I. Cupio Dissolvi
STAYING ALIVE WAS YOUR FAULT - NOW REMAIN
II. Hagakure
WHAT TIME WILL NOT HEAL - IRON WILL
III. Styrmsal
WHAT IRON WILL NOT HEAL - FIRE WILL
IV. Lichtschlag!
THROUGH FIRE INTO THE LIGHT
V. Gloria Mundi
Cold Spring has re-released on CD an extremely powerful work by German Turbund
Sturmwerk. Originally issued in a limited vinyl edition of 500, this new version
has been digitally remastered and includes an extra track. Of great value is also the CD
booklet, which brings a series of drawings that offer some clues as to the
philosophical/ethical issues addressed in the various movements of the album; it also
supplies an essay outlining the general aspirations of Turbund Sturmwerk's
project.
As pronounced by Turbund
Sturmwerk in this essay, the music on the album is to be "...regarded as one
piece, reflecting the Eternal Law of Existence." Further, the purpose with this work
is to generate Geisteshaltung or mentality/attitude in the audience, through
reflection on the audience's part upon the 'aesthetic resources' presented by Turbund
Sturmwerk in the music.
The CD opens with "Sic
Transit" a re-version of the final track "Gloria Mundi" of the original
album. The coursing sound as of icy winds, and dark, hollow percussions set a foreboding
mood for the piece. The vocals of the piece are narrated in German, and occasionally
underscored by a choir of other whispering voices. Snippets of various discordant sounds
briefly occur, weaved into the menacing fabric of vibrating presences and subtle howling
noises.
"Cupio Dissolvi" is a
symphony played out in an industrial nightmare landscape. The voices of anonymous
multitudes are almost drowned out by the clanking, echoing, metal rattlings and slams that
at times give an aural impression as of men working in a steel mine, and at other
instances seem to depict the clicking of iron locks and bolts into place, or rifles being
armed. Rising above this atmosphere of machinery and furnaces are deep, brooding, melodic
themes of brassy timbre, soaring briefly above the scene, then fading out. At the very end
of the piece, a coda spoken in a German voice is supported by a theme of clear, melancholy
synths; then, one final time, the metallic echo of a a rifle being loaded is heard.
Taking its title from the ancient
book of samurai ethics, "Hagakure" is appropriately centered around recordings
of a choir of Japanese men singing, and a fanatic voice yelling -- likewise in Japanese.
At certain points "Hagakure" leaps into sequences of triumphant synth themes,
and faster, rhythmical segments of the echoing, metallic loading grips and saber
rattlings. However, predominantly, deep, hollow drums, and a fragile, lyrical theme again
support this piece, calling to mind images of Yukio Mishima addressing the crowd
of soldiers immediately before his suicide, and silhouetted Japanese kamikaze pilots
climbing into the cockpits of waiting fighter planes.
Military snare drums, and themes of
great dramatic sweep launch "Styrmsal." For minutes the piece marches on, then
at its center, it completely changes character. An interlude of windlike ambience, liquid
sounds, and a looped female voice precede the rise of another grandiose brass theme, which
eventually ends in a subtle rush of fragmented metallic rustlings and the sound of water.
Possibly the most intense
piece is "Lichtschlag," with its expansive classical female chorals, droning,
sequenced synths, reverberating percussions, and metallic barks. The atmosphere evoked is
that of the glory and tragedy of the battlefield, and it is an appropriate climax before
the final segment of the album -- "Gloria Mundi," which in many ways break with
the style and feel of the rest of CD. Here, a simple, repeated keyboard note keeps the
time, as German vocals are performed in an autocratic tone of voice. A subdued, but rather
pretty keyboard theme underscores the entirety of the piece, however, "Gloria
Mundi" does stand out as a less accomplished piece than the rest of Turbund
Sturmwerk, which may be why it was reworked for the opening track of the CD release.
The spirit of the music is
decidedly elitist -- which is also reflected in the accompanying drawings and words in the
CD booklet; and for those who are offended by the ideas and sentiments of such thinkers as
Friedrich Nietzsche and Ernst Jünger, this CD may be one to skip. As it
stands, this is music composed for the occasion of finding oneself within the eye of a
storm, or beneath a cloudless sky at noon -- the rays of the sun beating down relentlessly
from above.
