TROU - Grjòthaugr reissue

[NO PART OF IT]

https://nopartofit.bandcamp.com/album/grj-thaugr

"TROU" (meaning "hole" or "void" in French) is a project which has been active for around ten years. Grjòthaugr has been reissued from a criminally limited edition cassette back in 2012. Like another favorite TROU tape, "Nebelsturm", Grjòthaugr is a hypnotic, loop-based, trance-inducing industrial noise/ambient release like no other I've heard. It's hard to tell for sure what makes these three lengthy tracks remain compelling for 15 to 35 minutes each. It could be Reichian phasing, moderate adjustments of effects, very careful layering, or maybe some other methods, but whatever the case may be, these loops of unknown origin take us on a journey.

Much like locked grooves, Grjòthaugr's three simple loops welcome us into a void, where sounds change and mutate with the listener's engagement, and can appear to transform dramatically with slight changes in positioning.

Much has been said about minimalism in art, and many a minimalist risks more than others the stigma for falling short of anything beyond mediocre. Here, whether it is sourced from tape loops or direct signals, we have a glaring example of compelling minimalist experimental music and noise.

TROU is also known for creating exemplary harsh noise and HNW, and their releases are often diverse and wide-ranging, but Grjòthaugr, one of the outliers in the project's vast catalog, stands as a crowning achievement, obviously worthy of a wider audience.

[NO PART OF IT]

Meaning "hole" or "void" in French, Trou surely conjures the abyss. Over three incredibly lengthy tracks (they're so long!) (my complaining is a joke), Trou turns gristle into surprisingly hypnotic loops, each one stretching it gets in your head and churns in there like a cement mixer. Only the most minor of shifts occur within the construction, so you're left to hallucinate all the changes your brain is tricking you into hearing. And that's OK – this is the kind of thing you can hook up and meditate to ... well, if you're so inclined to meditate to rippling noise loops. But still, as each track ends and the next one begins, you've become so sensitized to the previous one that the new one sounds like a wildly alien encounter, jolting you from your reverie as you scrabble to search for new psychological purchase. And then it's right back into the "void," once that next loop rolls over you.

https://criticalmassesmedia1.wordpress.com/2020/08/27/no-part-of-it-new-cd-batch/?fbclid=IwAR1zrzpBE39FXePjiAnYVKSnuDZwyPNJ0_P-y_9Adl1dYmifFu2Btp9zyyk

[NO PART OF IT]

Reviewed in Vital Weekly:
http://vitalweekly.net/1249.html?fbclid=IwAR2PPy35mKaU86DcL6W_Ta7ydUY9g3uOReJbKsLsBlFIc1iShlXE7lSGd9M

[NO PART OF IT]

Reviewed by Lost In A Sea of Sound:
https://lostseasound.blogspot.com/2020/10/trou-grjothaugr.html

[NO PART OF IT]

REVIEW by Side-Line: https://www.facebook.com/InfernoSoundDiaries/?__cft__

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  Trou – Grjòthaugr (Album – No part of it)
  Genre/Influences: Noise, Ambient, Experimental.
  Format: Digital, CDR.
  Background/Info: The album "Grjòthaugr" from the French project Trou was originally self-released on cassette format in 2017. The American label No Part Of It has now re-released the three original songs of the album. Trou has released an impressive number of productions, but this work was a rather unknown production from the Frenchman.
  Content: Trou totally fits to the approach of No Part Of It. The tracks are bringing elements of Noise and Dark-Ambient together, resulting in a kind of Abstract work. Endless loops are taking you away for a trance sensation created by sonic effects and loops from field recordings and other noise sources. The tracks are pretty extended, like there's no end.
  + + + : "Grjòthaugr" is the kind of production that will please a very restricted number of people, but they must be for sure absolute fans. It's an extreme sensation, but there's something to say about the 'controlled' Noise approach of Trou. You don't exactly get the feeling being exposed to a sonic wall; there's also a part of Ambient running through the composition. I personally prefer the shortest cut, which will however take you away for a deadly sonic assault from over the 15 minutes (!).
  - - - : The tracks are repetitive and when it all looks like it becomes endless –the last track going over the 34 minutes, I think a little bit more diversity would be a welcome gift.
  Conclusion: Trou can be translated as 'hole' or 'void' and the work of this artist literally suck you away in a dark and unknown hole. This sound is brain damaging!
  Best songs: "Herbspalast".
  Rate: (6).
  Artist: http://thetruetrou.blogspot.com 
  Label: www.nopartofit.com / www.facebook.com/nopartofit