Childhood's End | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | 28 May 2012 | |||
Recorded | Autumn 2008 and Summer 2011 at Crystal Canyon Studios, Oslo, Norway | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 53:52 | |||
Label | Kscope | |||
Producer | Ulver | |||
Ulver chronology | ||||
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Ulver studio album chronology | ||||
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Childhood's End (subtitled Lost & Found from the Age of Aquarius) is a compilation album of cover songs by Norwegian experimental collective Ulver. Produced by Ulver, the album was recorded live in Crystal Canyon Studios, Oslo, over two sessions, in autumn 2008 and summer 2011, and issued in May 2012 on Jester Records under exclusive license to Kscope.
The album is a collection of covers of "60s psychedelic chestnuts", [1] a reinterpretation of mostly obscure 1960s psychedelia, intended by Ulver as a reflection on lost innocence. [2]
In a Kscope video interview, Kristoffer Rygg commented, "I grew up with parents who were still listening to music from the time, so it informed my childhood, and it has become an ever increasing geeky sort of fetish since then", adding, "[M]y feeling is that most people's knowledge sort of limits itself to The Doors. The Doors were cool, but there was so much else going on… in the underground, records that got lost and didn't get as much recognition as they deserved in my opinion. We wish to be ambassadors for things that we love and we sort of hope that we can open some gates with the record." [3] [4]
The album includes versions of songs by The Pretty Things, The Byrds, Bonniwell's Music Machine, We the People, Jefferson Airplane, Gandalf, The Electric Prunes, The 13th Floor Elevators, The Troggs, The Left Banke, The Beau Brummels, Common People, Music Emporium, Curt Boettcher, The Fleur de Lys, and The United States of America.
The cover features a photograph by Hoang Van Danh of Phan Thi Kim Phuc fleeing a napalm attack by the Republic of Vietnam Air Force in 1972. [1]
A music video for "Magic Hollow", directed by Justin Oakey, was released in April 2012. [5]
Frontman Kristoffer Rygg explained that Childhood's End was "one of those projects I'd been meaning to do for some time. In my 20s I found myself coming up short with new things to like. It wasn't until the late '90s when I discovered a true fascination with psychedelic music, and even prog. That was when '60s and '70s music really took hold, and I've been more and more into it ever since. I listen to a lot more stuff from that era than I do modern music." [2] Rygg spent considerable time "digging around" to find the right songs to cover and explained that "[t]here's a missionary aspect to all this too, to make an exclamation mark to the fact that there are fucking golden nuggets before your Black Sabbaths." [2]
Rygg describes the album as connected to the themes of Ulver's 1998 album Themes from William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell , in that both explore "the same idea of shattered illusions and a lost childhood". [2] He elaborated this by explaining that the 1960s were "sort of a cultural movement... that became disillusioned and quite dark. I was thinking of a kind of Blakean strain, a loss of innocence. I've always thought that this particular era and the spirituality of it was very childlike in many ways. Suddenly there was Altamont and Charles Manson, cocaine and heroin, then Watergate later". [2]
The album was recorded in two sessions. The first, in autumn 2008, featured Lars Pedersen on drums. For the second session, in summer 2011, Tomas Pettersen drummed. [6]
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
About.com | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Exclaim! | Favourable [8] |
The New York Times | Favourable [9] |
Rolling Stone | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Sound and Vision | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
Record Collector | ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
The album received generally favourable reviews.
Ben Ratliffe, writing for The New York Times , praised Childhood's End for its treatment of the original music, commenting that "these cover versions reward the ambition of the original songs, draping them with stateliness". [9] Placing the album in the context of Ulver's discography, Ratliffe noted that Childhood's End is "the most straight-ahead Ulver record ever, but still strange". [9]
Natalie Zina Walschots wrote similarly in Exclaim! , describing the album as "deceptively simple", featuring an "achingly familiar" set of songs that, "rather than evoking fondness or nostalgia, conjure the unsettling shadow versions of themselves". [8] David Fricke, with Rolling Stone magazine, wrote that the album "is more than hip-covers fun" that "darken[s] the apocalypse in acid-Sixties relics". [10]
Stating that Ulver's choice of covers possesses a kinship with the band's own creative ambitions, Sound and Vision 's Michael Berk observed that Childhood's End "is not so much a departure as a literature review; drawing the connections between Ulver's own experimentalism and the psych bands who, possibly without a clear idea of what they were doing, pushed the boundaries of rock in the '60s further than any of their mainstream contemporaries". [1]
Dayal Patterson, writing for Record Collector , said "Ulver are nothing if not unpredictable and ever-evolving. With a contemporary edge that occasionally removes the furry ambiguities of the originals and replaces them with a dark sense of the epic, the album bears enough of Ulver's touch (particularly thanks to founder Kristoffer Rygg's vocals), meaning that this should be palatable for fans of the band new to garage and psychedelic music. Others will find this rewarding – if perhaps a little unnecessary – and there's little questioning the delivery or attention to detail here. Probably not at the top of the wish list for most followers of the group, but a pretty successful deviation nonetheless." [11]
No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
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1. | "Bracelets of Fingers" (The Pretty Things cover) | Dick Taylor, Phil May, Wally Walter | 4:12 |
2. | "Everybody's Been Burned" (The Byrds cover) | David Crosby | 3:25 |
3. | "The Trap" (Bonniwell's Music Machine cover) | Sean Bonniwell | 2:33 |
4. | "In the Past" (We the People cover) | Wayne Proctor | 2:54 |
5. | "Today" (Jefferson Airplane cover) | Marty Balin, Paul Kantner | 3:20 |
6. | "Can You Travel in the Dark Alone?" (Gandalf cover) | Peter Sando | 4:02 |
7. | "I Had Too Much to Dream (Last Night)" (The Electric Prunes cover) | Annette Tucker, Nancie Mantz | 2:54 |
8. | "Street Song" (The 13th Floor Elevators cover) | Stacy Sutherland | 5:14 |
9. | "66-5-4-3-2-1" (The Troggs cover) | Reg Presley | 3:23 |
10. | "Dark Is the Bark" (The Left Banke cover) | George Cameron, Steve Martin Caro, Tom Finn | 4:03 |
11. | "Magic Hollow" (The Beau Brummels cover) | Ron Elliott, Sal Valentino | 3:15 |
12. | "Soon There'll Be Thunder" (Common People cover) | Denny Robinett, Jerrald Robinett | 2:27 |
13. | "Velvet Sunsets" (Music Emporium cover) | William Cosby, Thom Wade | 2:44 |
14. | "Lament of the Astral Cowboy" (Curt Boettcher cover) | Curt Boettcher | 2:14 |
15. | "I Can See the Light" (The Fleur de Lys cover) | Bryn Haworth, Gordon Haskell | 3:14 |
16. | "Where Is Yesterday" (The United States of America cover) | Dorothy Moskowitz, Ed Bogas, Gordon Marron | 3:58 |
Total length: | 53:52 |
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Ulver is a Norwegian experimental electronica band founded in 1993, by vocalist Kristoffer Rygg. Their early works, such as debut album Bergtatt, were categorised as folklore-influenced black metal, but the band has since evolved a fluid and increasingly eclectic musical style, blending genres such as experimental rock, electronica, ambient, trip hop, symphonic and chamber traditions, noise, progressive and experimental music into their oeuvre. 1997 marked their international debut with the release of their third album Nattens madrigal through German label Century Media. However, following discord with the label, Rygg formed his own imprint, Jester Records, in 1998.
When is the musical project of Norwegian artist Lars Pedersen.
Nattens Madrigal – Aatte Hymne Til Ulven I Manden is the third studio album by Norwegian band Ulver, issued on 3 March 1997 via Century Media. Composed and arranged during the first half of 1995, Nattens is a concept album about wolves, the night, the moon, and the dark side of mankind.
A Quick Fix of Melancholy is the fourth EP by Norwegian experimental collective Ulver. Produced in the Winter of 2002, the EP was issued on 26 August 2003 via Jester Records. A precursor to the album Blood Inside, A Quick Fix of Melancholy showcases the band's ability to seamlessly combine ambient and electronic music with orchestral elements.
Themes from William Blake's The Marriage of Heaven and Hell is the fourth studio album by Norwegian experimental electronica band Ulver. Produced with Kristoffer Rygg, together with Knut Magne Valle and Tore Ylwizaker, it was issued on 17 December 1998 via Jester Records. It is a musical adaptation of William Blake's poem The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. The album blends electronics, industrial music elements, progressive metal, avant-garde rock and ambient passages, following Blake's plates as track indexes. Stine Grytøyr, Ihsahn, Samoth and Fenriz all feature as guest vocalists.
Perdition City is the fifth studio album by Norwegian experimental electronica band Ulver, issued in March 2000, via Jester Records. The album was recorded and produced by Kristoffer Rygg and Tore Ylwizaker, mixed by Ylwizaker at Beep Jam Studio and mastered by Audun Strype at Strype Audio.
Kristoffer Rygg, also known as Garm, Trickster G. Rex and God Head, is a Norwegian vocalist, musician and producer known primarily for his work with Ulver, Arcturus, and Borknagar.
Blood Inside is the sixth full-length studio album by Norwegian experimental electronica band Ulver. Produced by Ulver, together with Ronan Chris Murphy, the album was recorded and mixed in early 2004, and issued in June 2005 via Jester Records. The album sees Ulver return to more classically-based arrangements and instrumentation.
Metamorphosis is the first EP by Norwegian experimental electronica band Ulver. Written and produced by Kristoffer Rygg and Tore Ylwizaker, the EP was issued on 27 September 1999 via Jester Records. The EP showcased Ulver's new electronic musical direction that would become more readily apparent on the album Perdition City.
Teachings in Silence is a compilation album by Norwegian collective Ulver. Issued through American independent label Black Apple Records in March 2002, it combines Silence Teaches You How to Sing and Silencing the Singing, originally issued in September and December 2001, respectively. It was subsequently released in Europe one year later by Norwegian record company Jester Records. Due to the experimental nature of the music, both Silence EPs were limited to two thousand, and three thousand copies.
Shadows of the Sun is the seventh studio album by the Norwegian experimental electronica band Ulver. Produced by Ulver, the album was issued in October 2007 via Jester Records and The End Records. Officially announced on 13 July 2007, Shadows of the Sun received critical acclaim on release, and was described as "dark and tragic", with "soothing electronics and natural percussion". The album features contributions from Pamelia Kurstin on theremin, Mathias Eick on trumpet, and Austrian white noise musician Christian Fennesz adding electronics and helping Ulver to correspond with their vision on the final product.
Daniel O'Sullivan is a British musician and composer from Manchester, best known for playing in experimental art-rock bands Grumbling Fur, Guapo, Miasma & the Carousel of Headless Horses, Ulver, Sunn O))), Æthenor, Laniakea, Miracle, Mothlite, and This Is Not This Heat. He's also released solo work under his own name.
Wars of the Roses is the eighth studio album by the Norwegian experimental electronica band Ulver. The album was produced by Ulver, with John Fryer and Jaime Gomez Arellano, and issued in the UK on 25 April 2011 via Jester Records and Kscope, preceded by a single, "February MMX", in February. The album was released in the U.S. on 3 May 2011. Wars of the Roses is the first album to feature new member, British composer and multi-instrumentalist Daniel O'Sullivan.
Messe I.X–VI.X is the ninth studio album by the Norwegian experimental electronica band Ulver, created in collaboration with the Tromsø Chamber Orchestra with additional aid from composer Martin Romberg. Written and produced by Ulver, released on October 8, 2013, via Jester Records and Kscope.
Terrestrials is a collaborative studio album by American drone metal band Sunn O))) and Norwegian experimental music group Ulver. Produced by Stephen O'Malley and Kristoffer Rygg, it was released on February 3, 2014, via Southern Lord Records. It has been described as "three live improvisation pieces".
The Norwegian National Opera is a concert film by Norwegian Experimental electronica band Ulver. Directed by Erlend Gjertsen, the film was issued on DVD and Blu-ray Disc in November 2011 via Jester Records and Kscope. The film documents Ulver’s performance at The Norwegian National Opera on 31 July 2010. The concert was later issued as a CD/DVD set, and double LP. The film holds an 18 rating from the BBFC for containing strong sex and bloody images, however, no cuts were made to the performance.
Live at Roadburn is a live album by Norwegian experimental collective Ulver. Produced by Ulver, the album was recorded at the Roadburn Festival in Tilburg, Netherlands on 12 April 2012 and issued in April 2013 via Roadburn Records.
M is the debut studio album by black metal project Myrkur, by Danish musician and singer-songwriter Amalie Bruun. Produced by Kristoffer "Garm" Rygg of Ulver, it was released on 21 August 2015 through Relapse Records.
ATGCLVLSSCAP is the tenth studio album by Norwegian experimental electronica band Ulver. Written, performed and produced by Ulver, the album was released on 22 January 2016 via newly formed, London-based label House of Mythology.
Riverhead is an original motion picture soundtrack album by Norwegian experimental collective Ulver for Justin Oakey's 2016 film of the same name. The album was issued in December 2016 via House of Mythology.
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