HEXAHEDRON - LIVE AT HENIE ONSTAD KUNSTSENTER

It is not easy for me to define what Ulver's music is, but at least I am sure of one thing, that they are/have been/were free to explore their creativity with no boundaries at all.

And yeah, in my musical (and emotional) soundtrack Ulver has made a deep impact in the last years, and I am sure its importance will prevail until I reach eternity. That impact was developed by the band's colorful palette of sounds, which might be ironic because most of their atmospheres lie in a gray scale, however, though Kristoffer Rygg's iconic voice command the ship, this multifaceted project has been capable of reinventing themselves over the years, so through their discography concepts such as folk, black metal, drone, electronica, prog rock, ambient, trip- hop, avant-garde or even pop, have fulfilled our senses.

In the second decade of 00s this band of wolves started to release some music recorded live in concerts, some of which were actual compositions, some others improvisations, but most of them were re-worked on studio, which helped the band and the involved engineers make some improvements and deliver releases with the highest quality. One of those records is this entitled 'Hexahedron' which features a one-hour non-stop concert permormed by Ulver back in 2018, divided in five pieces where, of course, they offer a mixture of sounds, emotions and atmospheres.

With the first track 'Enter the Void' the experience might be multidimensional, one can listen to it with eyes closed and feel a lot of things, and though the drone music is what prevails here, the effect is not necessary dark, it might also be celestial, bright, foggy, uncertain, profound and indefinite, all at different moments but all at the same time. Fifteen minutes of a cathartic atmospheric trip that, all of a sudden, morphs into quite catchier and friendlier sounds, meaning we are already listening to 'Aeon Blue', an 11-minute episode where an 80s feeling with some new-age nuances, electronic winks and endless keyboard layers rule. Rumors say that this tune was a preview of what the band's upcoming sound would be, which was materialized in 2020 under the name of 'Flowers of Evil', an album some of my friends and I love.

'Bounty Hunter' is like music for a silent film, I don't know but sci-fi would suit the best. The first part has some softcguitar distortion and a feeling of uncertainty. Then after three minutes the rhythm and the path become clearer, some synthesizers a la new wave, with great and delicate drums and percussion that add a richness of figures and textures that will make your move your head and enjoy the ride. Then it becomes gentler, I love the soft bass lines while keyboards produce some new age atmospheres, taking us into a trip through different universes until it fades out.

OMG, after just a split second of silence the band take us to another universe with 'A Fearful Symmetry' whose danceable rhythm I am sure led some attendants to stand up and shake their bodies a little bit. The bass sound is so addictive, but I really love the percussion, quite delicious here. After four minutes in this track (and after 38 minutes in that performance) the vocals appear for the first time, and yeah, since the very first time I listened to this live record I immediately recognized the rhythm and lyrics, because people at that show (2018) didn't know, but this part would be released in 2020 under the title of 'Little Boy', one of the singles of the above-mentioned and acclaimed Flowers of Evil.

The last part is a long one, 19 minutes of 'The Long Way Home', which makes me question myself about what to consider home, a place, a feeling, a utopia? Well, this track represents another contrast in their music, because after that dancing moment, the obscurity returns here in so many forms, we can find it in forms of folk, trip-hop, experimental music, noise and a long etc. Listening to this experience make me envious of the audience, because it is evident that there is a trance full of cathartic moments in a performance where the sounds were not the only important elements, I am sure the visual production was carefully chosen, as well as the venue, in order to offer a multisensorial and I have no doubt at all, an unforgettable memory.

I feel sad, yeah, I would have loved to see them onstage once in this life, and though I ignore Kriss' decisions regarding Ulver's fate, we can deny that part of their essence has just left this world and hopefully, entered to a brighter one.

Ulver is not only music, is art, and I think we should embrace these words by our beloved Tore Ylwizaker: "doing whatever we want, not knowing what it's supposed to become or where it will end up."

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