Famlende Forsøk
Døve Munker Ut Av Norsk Industri
SHiT Tapes/DIG Music

Famlende Forsøk's classic (in Norway at least) cassette only-release from the mid 1980s is about to be available for downloading now. Here's a staggering attempt (famlende forsøk, in Norwegian) to translate my own review of the cassette in a fanzine way back in 1985:

'Join us on a journey away from the greyness of everyday life. Let's sink into a mystic, mythic, smoke-filled world deep beneath the surface of the earth. When we finally reach solid ground, we're in an enormous hall. Dwarfs hurry around and bangs away on metal. A crowd of monks of indeterminable Buddhist-catholic origins shows up and wanders slowly by while chanting. Their hoods are drawn over their heads and we can barely catch a glimpse their faces in the faint light. They don't show any signs to respond if you'd think of shouting at them. A clean shaven Allah without neither wife nor donkey walks around in a bad mood. A snotty young boy in shorts and hardly any hair on his head stumbles around and are bullied no matter what he do. He's called Kåre Wild-lock (this is referring to the Norwegian prime minister at the time, Kåre Willoch). A bit further along the hall walks a gaggle of geese quacking away. One of them straddles around with top hat, gaiters/spats, red coat and dollar signs in his eyes behind the pince-nez. In a corner is a huge pile of scrap metal and junk. It looks like remains of old machinery from a distant industrial revolution. A lonely monk sits at the top of the pile and plays a giant organ with pipes that stretch up towards the roof somewhere into infinity. William Burroughs sits and fiddles with his pair of scissors on any printed word he can lay his hands on without any help from John Cage. In short (before this turns too pompous), Famlende Forsøk is here with the newest, neatest, most uniform... thematic cassette so far. The sound quality is very good, the lyrics chanting and slogan'ish, organ and metal. It ought to be available space in your music collection for Famlende Forsøk somewhere between Fall and Faust. COMING SOON!'

Well, now it'll be coming soon again, available for downloading; check out Amazon.co.uk.

The recordings of the album started in late 2003 at a closed and run down industrial site where members of the band and a couple of helpers banged away on metal bars, big metal pipes and all sorts of metal laying around the place. These field recordings along with harmonium, monk chants, tape loops and some more everyday instruments were used along with Brt's lyrics that I guess I tried to describe in the review above. When Døve Munker ... was premiered live at a festival in July 1984 it took me completely by surprise. Overwhelming! The work was recorded in an eight track semi-professional studio the following month, but wasn't released on cassette until late 1985, I think, due to trouble with the printing of the cassette cover and accompanying booklet. The album received great reviews, but remained a cult recording among the dedicated few, I guess. There were plans to relaunch the album on LP a few years back, but the plans had to be dropped due to financial problems. Now finally, being out of print for at least a couple of decades, here it's available again.

Two of Famlende Forsøk's other releases, Return Of Monster Attack and One Night I Had A Frightful Dream, A Tribute To H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) have been available for downloading a couple of months by now and Famlende Forsøk's first LP Ars Transmutatoria will be available early in April. And those interested can find out more about the sonic trio in our interview with the guys two years ago. Now, what happened to the brand new album Washing China they were working on at the time of the interview? Still in the pipeline, it seems.

Copyright © 2013 JP