Ringing rock meets progressve rock on Gazpacho’s new album

Not everything one does as a music archaeologist and contemporary Stone Age musician are hidden and out of sight for the public. An example is my participation at Gazpacho’s latest studio album Molok, which is now out. The Norwegian band Gazpacho is actually among the hot names in the genre “post-progressive”. These days the guys are on the road for their tour in support of their album, in Poland, Germany, the Netherlands and England.

I participate on one of the tracks, with a bunch of instruments and sounds. I play on small stones (lithophones), lyres, bells and a large ringing stone from Skåra in Egersund. It was not taken into the studio, but recorded “in situ”, where the ice cap once upon a time placed it.

‘Molok’ is a concept album, and one rather weird idea behind it is a supposition based on quantum physics, that the album will be able to destroy the universe: An embedded code sounding like a strange sound at the end of the album, will cause the CD player to make a random number every time the record is being played. This number corresponds to the total number of elementary particles in the universe and will create a “Quantum Zeno” effect which in theory will result in the universe breakdown.

This sounds a bit wild, but the idea is indeed serious and evidence based, and is developed in cooperation with quantum physicists. You can read more about this experment and about the album in the article An album that could destroy the world, in the UK-newspaper The Independent.

You can also read about the album at Gazpacho’s official website or at the Kscope record label (UK).

Gazpachobilde

Gjermund Kolltveit

Music archaeologist, ethnomusicologist, musician – Nesodden, Norway. Main research interests: sound and sound tools (e.g. jew’s harps, lyres, ringing stones, bells) in human culture and soundscapes.

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