Artist : PRINCE VALIUM
Title : Andlaus
Cat# RESCD019

Format : CD Album In Digipack
Label : Resonant
Barcode # 0666017141121

Release Info :

A debut of sorts on Resonant, from yet another Icelandic artist; Prince Valium put the 'um' in Sk/um, the duo responsible for the fine IDM electronica mini-album "I Thagu Fallsins" in early 2003 (RESCD004/LP004), alongside Skurken (the 'sk' half).

Working both as a partnership and as individuals since then, "Andlaus" (meaning 'without breath') is the first material from the Sk/um members to see the light of day, so to speak, since the Sk/um release. This sees Valium - 30 year old Thorsteinn Olafsson - take a step back from the Plaid-style playful electronics of old, instead leaning notably towards epic soundscapes utilising both real instruments (guitar being predominant here) and his computer, to create what is ultimately an ambient album in essence.

Mostly instrumental - the exception being the breathtaking female vocal-led second track "Crying Hearts " - "Andlaus" is stunning, evocative and overwhelming, with widescreen production that belies its bedroom origins. Full press mailout, the results of which will follow.

Biog:

Prince Valium is the alter-ego of Þorsteinn Ólafsson, a 30 years old Icelander. A former member of various bands, Þorsteinn soon put his mind to his solo creations, mainly ambient electronic music. In 2003 he teamed up with Skurken, a fellow Icelander and together they made the album "Í Þágu fallsins", released on Resonant records. Andlaus is a collection of Prince Valium´s most recent creations. Using only a guitar and his computer, the Prince made the album in his bedroom over a relative short period of time.


Tracklisting:

1. Mixed State
2. Crying Hearts
3. Butter Cookies
4. Afsal
5. Tomleikar
6. Redecoration In Four Dimensions
7. Burning My B.A.
8. Goofy Takes A Bath
9. Pupu's Shoes
10. Romantic Shopping
11. Broken Shower
12. Guo Blessi Pig

Reviews :

One half of Icelandic electronica duo Sk/um, Thorsteinn Olafsson has given his sound an epic makeover for this his solo debut on Resonant. The skittering micro beats and gentle, filtered melodies of old are still very much present, but on Andlaus they're less central. Here the focus is the kind of echoic electric guitar-based post-rock that you'd expect from Morr Music's Manual or Olafsson's Resonant labelmate, Stafraenn Hakon. 'Crying Hearts' comes closest to a concise pop song, but it's most notable for inviting national stereotyping: with - and it pains me to make such lazy comparisons (though apparently not enough to stop myself) - majestic bowed guitar lifted straight off the first Sigur Ros album, and a vocal that (here I go again...) inevitably sounds a bit like Björk. As the album progresses, Olafsson delves deeper into his shoegazing electronica repertoire to create an atmospheric body of work which evocatively, if utterly predictably, reflects the vast, icy topography of his homeland. Lovely. BOOMKAT

Icelander Þorsteinn Ólafsson (aka Prince Valium) produced Andlaus (‘without breath') in his bedroom using nothing more than a guitar and computer but the results are anything but hermetic. The willowy electronics add wide-screen atmosphere but it's primarily Ólafsson's chiming guitar reverberations that give the material its expansive scope. With the guitar style so purposefully grandiose, it's hard to not think of Sigur Rós when a piercing guitar swells in the regrettably-titled “Goofy Takes A Bath” and in “Crying Hearts,” a splendid ballad that's unfortunately marred by a female singer's occasionally off-key vocalizing; Andlaus' densely-layered material (e.g., “Romantic Shopping”) sometimes calls Manual to mind as well. Though the album's pitched as an ‘electronic ambient album,' it's hardly wallpaper music, especially when a dramatic lurch like “Tomleikar” escalates to such a cathedralesque pitch and when brooding shudders of six-strings resonate throughout the material elsewhere. Ólafsson upholds interest through constant shifts in mood: “Redecoration In Four Dimensions” is stately, “Afsal” melancholy, and “Burning My B.A.” both brooding and fulminating. Despite the aforementioned imperfections, Andlaus is often alluring, and never more so than during the radiant waltz “Guo Blessi Pig” that closes the album so sweetly. TEXTURA

Prince Valium is one half of the Icelandic duo Sk/um (the 'um' side of it to be precise) that produced the well-received electronica mini-album 'I Pagu Fallsins' in early 2003.

Andlaus is almost entirely instrumental save for one track, Crying Hearts, and really is a product of its environment. When you listen to this album, you really couldn't imagine it being spawned from anywhere other than Scandinavia. It is crammed full of ambient Arctic, glacial soundscapes that are evocative of acts like Sigur Ros. It is a testament to Prince Valium's skills that an album as sonically wide-screen as Andlaus could be produced entirely from his bedroom. And for this he should rightly be given great credit.

However, the album is fatally tied to its musical heritage if not Prince's own influences. The ghost of Sigur Ros hangs over the whole affair. Indeed, given that Andlaus is produced by an Icelander, it feels like one already knows it will sound like Sigur Ros before the first track even begins. Even the vocals on Crying Hearts, has more than a passing, disconcerting resemblance to Björk.

That said, there are moments of great beauty and reflection on Andlaus, particularly the opener, Mixed State. The tracks are expertly crafted in terms of mood. However, while there is much to commend Andlaus in terms of its addition to the canon of contemporary Icelandic music, there is not enough here to lift it out of that position, as there is so much here that one has heard elsewhere. DISKANT

Engaging ambient music, if this is not a misnomer, can sometimes teeter on the edge of too ‘nice’ (read insipid). An album that in one mood appears calming and meditative may reveal itself as hackneyed and trite under different listening conditions.

Icelandic bedroom producer Þorsteinn Ólafsson’s debut effort under the Prince Valium moniker should NOT be listened to in the car, on the freeway. This is what could be referred to as not giving an album a ‘fair go’ (supposedly a defining characteristic of the Australian national psyche). This is an album made for headphone listening, or on a quiet Sunday morning when the world is at peace. Under such conditions, Andlaus grew on me—I had been initially inclined to dismiss it as pseudo-new-age massage music.

Stylistic comparisons could be made with label-mate Stafrœnn Häkon’s releases—occupying a sugary space where the melodies and atmosphere almost need a good kicking to give them a bit of attitude, but are nevertheless compelling. The Kranky label’s releases by Labradford and Roy Montgomery inhabit a similar space to Andlaus.

The opening three tracks are wonderful, especially the single vocal track of the album ‘Crying Hearts’. The remainder of the album drifts by in ambient shoegazing mode. Small nuances and effects come to the surface only to be wrapped up in the aural equivalent of fairy floss. Which, depending upon your mood, could be a good thing. CYCLIC DEFROST

One half of the Icelandic IDM electronic duo Sk/um, Thorsteinn Olafsson has gone in a completely different musical direction on his debut album under the name Prince Valium. Andlaus (meaning "without breath") is a twelve song, fifty-minute journey through cavernous spaces, where guitars and electronics heavy with reverb mingle with occasional programmed beats in a wide-open head space.

Prince Valium has things in common with a lot of other artists working in a similar style, and his downcast creations call to mind the work of Beef Terminal, Yellow6, and other artists who largely use guitar as the melodic centerpiece of their work and then bathe it in effects and atmosphere. Album opener "Mixed State" is all of those things, as a far-off guitar melody drifts through soft ambient drones and some very murky beat hits. It's as if the song is being played on the other side of a valley filled with fog, and making out any fine detail is prohibited because of the distance.

That said, the next song "Following Hearts" comes as an almost complete surprise, as pinging electronics and a watery beat carry more drifting drones while cooing female vocals give the track a pop lean despite the icy instrumentation. Although Olafsson lets his IDM side show through in a couple tracks (most notably the pitter-patter programming and sonar pings of "Butter Cookies" and the choppy but subdued breakbeats of "Burning My B.A."), the album is largely a semi lo-fi exploration of downcast ambience. The mid-section of the album is especially chilly, with a slew of seriously melancholic tracks that all layer sparse guitar lines with wash after wash of fuzzy soundscapes.

Even tracks with lighter titles aren't exempt from the gloom, and "Goofy Takes A Bath" is a perfect example, with a skeletal beat providing just enough structure for a repetitive bass, ringing guitar notes, and multiple layers of both sparkling and gritty drones. Like many of the tracks on the release, it doesn't have any production qualities that mark it as modern, and it sounds like everything from an early 4AD release to what it in fact is (an album created in 2006 by a guy with a guitar and a computer). While there are definitely some great tracks on the album, Andlaus ultimately fails to really separate itself from the slew of other like-minded music coming out. If you like slower, lo-fi shoegaze-inspired ambient music, you could certainly do worse, but if you're looking for something to knock your socks off... ALMOST COOL

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