O.A. Jensen of Nordland, Norway

Deep amid "Ninas Garden"

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

Deep swells. Soft shadows. Rhythmic elements buried under dense drones. A sense of motion in constant contrast with a sense of stillness. These are all shared elements of a certain type of ambient music, and they are in full effect in “Ninas Garden” from the musician Havdis, aka O.A. Jensen of Nordland, Norway. Those aspects here are expertly executed. What distinguishes the work further arrives about halfway through, when it nudges ever so slightly to something song-like, as shifts between chords become apparent, lending structure to the gathered sounds. The change isn’t quite glacial, but it is subtle, excellently so.

Track originally published at [soundcloud.com/havdis](https://soundcloud.com/havdis/havdis-ninas-garden).

Writing on Billy Childish and Punk at Hilobrow

As part of Carbona Your Enthusiasm

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

I announced this [back in mid-August](https://disquiet.com/2020/08/12/late-early-punk-or-early-late-punk/), but I appear to have neglected to note when it was published. I contributed a short essay about Billy Childish for [hilobrow.com](https://www.hilobrow.com/2020/08/20/carbona-your-enthusiasm-20/). As I write at the start of it, I was obsessed with the music of Billy Childish in the 1990s. My obsession had a partner in how prolific he was (and remains). Most households contain fewer records than he’s released. And then there’s the EPs, and the singles. Being obsessed with Childish meant my love was always unrequited, which meant it was always fresh. Billy Bragg? Nick Lowe? I could accumulate those Brits’ discographies pretty quickly. With Childish, there was always another release to stumble upon. By no means was I a completest. I was an opportunist. If I had some credit left over at Amoeba after trading stuff in and hoarding import ambient records, I’d snag some Childish. A single here, an LP there. It added up. Jeepers, did it add up.

Thanks to Hilobrow for the opportunity to reflect on an old favorite. The essay is part of a series the website ran about late early (or early late) punk, called [Carbona Your Enthusiasm](https://www.hilobrow.com/tag/carbona-enthusiasm/). There are 25 essays in the Carbona series, and among the contributors are Luc Sante, Mimi Lipson, and series editor Josh Glenn. The final entry is by Mike Watt (on the Dils’ [“You’re Not Blank (So Baby We’re Through).”]((https://www.hilobrow.com/2020/08/25/carbona-your-enthusiasm-25/)) I wrote the introduction to a comics anthology tribute to his legendary band the Minutemen [back in 2014](https://disquiet.com/2014/12/02/do-you-want-punk-or-do-you-want-the-truth/).

Current Listens: Newly Sequenced, Windshield Filter

Heavy rotation, lightly annotated

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

A weekly(ish) answer to the question “What have you been listening to lately?” It’s lightly annotated because I don’t like re-posting material without providing some context. In the interest of conversation, let me know what you’re listening to in the comments below. Just please don’t promote your own work (or that of your label/client). This isn’t the right venue. (Just use email.)

▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰ ▰

NEW: Recent(ish) arrivals and pre-releases

I admit that if I’m not careful, this could end up being a new Jeannine Schulz album and a new Orbital Patterns video every week (I say that in the hopes that they discover each other’s music and team up). But so be it. My listening is my listening.

▰ Orbital Patterns welcomes a new sequencer into his synthesizer rig, and [the result](https://youtu.be/Vwq2gMgPYA4) is a super slow melody that’s part jazz sermon, part illbient atmosphere:

▰ Glistening, blippy, [pop-leaning](https://youtu.be/9fxc5W9XV4o) instrumental piece performed live by S. B. Arweiler.

▰ The highly talented Jeannine Schulz has been releasing a steady stream of music at a pace in inverse proportion with how slow and placid is the music itself. Much of that has been on her own Bandcamp page, but last week the label Stereoscenic, of Cleveland, Ohio, announced [*Ground . The Gentle*](https://stereoscenic.bandcamp.com/album/ground-the-gentle), 10 tracks available for pre-order as a CD, but already streaming in full. Start with the aptly named “Heaven-Sent,” all cautious chords and dirty-windshield textures.

Grace Notes

From last week

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

Some tweet observations ([twitter.com/disquiet](https://twitter.com/disquiet)) I made over the course of the past week, lightly edited:

▰ “I am debating in a room different from the one you are in now.” The Commission on Presidential Debates has announced Alvin Lucier as the next moderator. This helpfully charts a course to unintelligibility that will be a relief for all in attendance.

▰ Was dipping a toe into the fetid conspiracy swamp of earpiece b.s., but it appears the freak show has moved on to contact-lens b.s. Enjoy the ride, HUD scholars. (That’s heads-up display, not Housing and Urban Development, but given our strange times, who knows what lies ahead?)

▰ Got my Underworld Drift box, the three-CD Matmos set, Sarah Davachi’s two-CD latest, and Thomas Dimuzio’s three-CD live set. Multi-hour releases seem to, for me at least, challenge the non-corporeality of (“mere”) single-album releases, justifying their physical presence on my shelf and their claim for my attention.

▰ “You’re the first one here”

▰ Yes, I am up for a movie about a drummer who goes deaf. And all the more so when it’s Riz Ahmed behind the kit: [criticalhit.net](https://www.criticalhit.net/entertainment/riz-ahmed-is-a-drummer-who-loses-his-hearing-in-this-trailer-for-sound-of-metal/). *Sound of Metal* is due out later this year (first in theaters, then on Amazon Prime).

▰ One thing I’ve come to realize lately is there’s nothing I can think of that tastes good with cinnamon that doesn’t even better with cayenne in addition: cereal, hot chocolate, ice cream, etc.