The music was commissioned last year by the Tromsø Kulturhus (House of Culture) in Norway, in a cooperation with the Arctic Opera and Philharmonic Orchestra cultural institution. It was composed and first performed live by Ulver, alongside the Tromsø Chamber Orchestra on September 21 2012. The band then took the recordings back to Oslo and spent winter and spring in post-production, honing the material for its studio-equivalent.
The follow up to 2011’s acclaimed Wars of the Roses, Messe I.X–VI.X is a different entity; reverberating 2007’s somber and solemn Shadows of the Sun, with the band even going as far as to say it feels like a companion piece to it. The album also echoes the early electronic experiments of EPs Silence Teaches You How to Sing and Silencing the Singing, and is furthermore said to invoke the ghost of an abandoned Nattens madrigal renaissance-project.
Six compositions altogether written and produced, recorded and mixed by Ulver, this time consisting of Ole Alexander Halstensgård, Kristoffer Rygg, Jørn H. Sværen and Tore Ylwizaker, with additional aid and advice from composer Martin Romberg who also arranged the music for the 21 members of Tromsø Chamber Orchestra. The album also features the extraordinary talents of contemporary composers/musicians Ole-Henrik Moe and Kari Rønnekleiv.
The Norwegian masters have evolved over the past two decades to cross an
astonishing body of disciplines, taking in ambient, avant-garde, electronic,
psychedelic, prog and jazz influences. Now it is their electronic, atmospheric
and classical sensibilities which come to the fore. In a short message to their
fans – subtly alluding to the darkness of history – the band named some of
their influences for Messe I.X–VI.X:
“Gorecki’s No. 3: Symphony of Sorrowful Songs. It haunted us for years and
probably always will. The Gustavs Mahler and Holst. Sound collages from When or
Nurse with Wound. 70’s kraut and synth. Ash Ra and Autobahn. 80’s pop
scores. John Carpenter and Tin Drum. Terry Riley, again and again and again.
Saint John of the Cross.”
Ulver summer 2013