#PREMIERE 'never alone always many' sortlegeme
Listen to 'never alone always many' by sortlegeme taken from 'they are many' out on 19th February via Barkhausen
Following acclaimed underground releases on labels like Schacke’s imprint Moral Defeat, Katharsis and Perfect Aesthetics, Danish electronic musician Sortlegeme (the solo moniker of Jeppe Dalsgaard Andersen) returns with his most spellbinding work to date. 'They Are Many' is an album of sprawling textures that like music in its most intuitive state captures the essence of the indescribable.
Built from polyrhythmic synth lines that surge towards sensory overload, 'They Are Many' is equally full of subtle layers that emerge delicately from the foundations. In this ever-evolving sonic landscape, one senses the earthly, deliberate movements of tectonic plates colliding before settling into yet another million years of relentless grind. It's a soundscape that teeters on the edge of a total breaking point: a beautifully ominous foreshadowing of collapse.
Andersen reflects: 'I was playing Starcraft at the time I made this music, and I think the Zerg was an inspiration and model for this kind of life. I was thinking about creeping and crawling things. The album reflects on the world humans might leave behind in our self-destruction and how opportunistic species might thrive in our absence, like weeds sprouting from the ashes of a forest fire. I was always big on post-rock, and this setup allowed me to do big buildups in that style.'
With 'They Are Many,' Andersen fully embraces a departure from any rhythmic constraints in his music, allowing for expansive exploration throughout the album. While hope – or what is left of it – might seem sparse in the album's 45-minute journey, the music is punctuated by beautiful, voice-like melodies that are eventually overwhelmed by a noisy climax, leading to a profound numbness. The sensation is akin to synthesizers forging their way towards the void.
Andersen: 'We as humans are often consumed by our knowledge, ethics, and complex systems, but sometimes it's important to remember that life's origin is pure survival. Our present culture is overly intellectual, and I find myself drawn to the instinctive, opportunistic aspects of life, much like a hive of smaller organisms operates, without conscious thought. We tend to view everything from our individualistic, single-body perspective, forgetting that the world's very essence is multiplicity.'