Reviews
Skalpell - "Nothing Important To Tell So Far"
Vital Weekly, #759
audiophob is a small label from Germany and they release industrial ambient music. Skalpell is a duo from Switzerland and consists of Harald Weissen and Henry Favretto. They have been active since 1995 and for five years ago Skalpell released their last music. The CD "Nothing to tell so far" contains seven compositions with a diversity of styles. The album starts with a dark ambient piece of music with open sounds. A nice entrance of the dark moods of Skalpell. The second one is also ambient, but has more industrial elements in the music by the use of metals and tribal beats. The album becomes more dark and abstract until the strong heartbeat become a dominant part of music. Ebola 3 starts with the sound of a humming cat and develops into a noisy track. Outbound is real noisy floorfiller with heavy beats and high pitched tones with some white noise. The album ends with some electronic noise and become more and more quiet and minimal. Skalpell takes five years to create a new album and it is worth waiting. (JKH)
Skalpell - "Nothing Important To Tell So Far"
Side Line
Skalpell is a project I’ve followed since their early beginning, which brings us back to the midst of the 90s. Back in time Skalpell was a trio when Bruno Ruch (Sleepwalk) was on board. The project rapidly went on as a duo featuring Harald Weissen and Henry Favretto. Skalpell has been always quite irregular in their releases, which probably explains that “Nothing Important To Tell So Far” is their 3rd album thus far. The new CD has already been released on another label and comes 5 years after “Some Of Nothing” (2005). When you analyze their music all over the years you’ll notice a sound in constant evolution. It all started quite brutal and rough on the early tape material, but has finally evolved towards a creative and well-crafted opus of intelligent electro-industrial music. This album is full of great, entertaining electronic atmospheres. The band being picked up by Audiophob was for sure a real good choice for both of the parties. The composition work of Skalpell is based on great sound treatments, haunting atmospheres, crescendo drum sections bringing some of the songs to a real climax and a few experimental elements. We get 7 songs, each easily goes over the 10 minutes, but the tracks always remain fascinating. The raw sounds and global production brings this album to a real accomplishment. This new album of Skalpell is definitely meant to please lovers of progressive and intelligent electro-industrial-ambient music. (DP:8)DP.