stian skagen “the inward rising” compact disc

• the inward rising (17:30)

prisma press release...

stian skagen: the inward rising cd available january 2010. stian skagen (b.1980) aka (concept.virus) is one of scandinavia's most interesting sound artists. he has toured and recorded with names like årabrot, ryfylke and nernes / skagen and contributed to several exhibitions with his work. the inward rising by skagen and monica winther was presented at henie onstad art center from november 20th to december 14th 2008. stian says: the inward rising was composed to introduce as an acousmatic and phenomenological sonic sphere within the installation with the same name, where the observers relation to the sculpture and painting was stimulated and brought forward by a complex, detailed and seductive soundscape. this work follows up a series of projects where skagen works to create a greater consciousness around the human perception and understanding of space and time and the senses potential in the immediate environment. from bjørn hatterud's review of the installation for kunstkritikk: stian skagen and monica winther has created some of the most powerful i've experienced in an art museum ever. at the head of the room is a tableau with something that looks like a roughly carved huge stone in front of a fantastic painting, abstract, partly op-art, partly emo-conceptual, in neon and neatly composed stripes. the painting and the stone is exposed to changing light in different colors, which makes different parts of the painting light up, and disappear, so that different patterns supersede each other. and at the same time – what one hears all the way from one enters the door to the center - bathed the room in loud sound. the sound is murky and dark. i hear trees falling, the roar of waterfalls, creepy creatures, or the roaring emptiness of space. skagen, perhaps best known from the duo ryfylke, has also previously profiled himself as a creator of extreme soundscapes, bathed in black soil, pierced with ants and worms, rumbling and morbid. the sounds, along with the stone and the 60’s psychedelic forms on the canvas, gives me associations to 2001 a space odyssey, with the spacecraft that glides slowly through space, the experimental lightshow towards the end, and the stone falling from the sky. i do not know if this is intentional, but on top of it all, the work, as the film, the theme is time: according to a large drawing that hangs on the wall, the stone was used as the score for the soundscape.