Silence Teaches You How to Sing / Silencing the Singing＜White Vinyl＞

This EP consists of one track loosely recorded during the sessions for the Perdition City album, specifically the song "Dead City Centres." Silence Teaches You How to Sing has the same type of subdued, rainy night in the city atmosphere as that album, but here the material is not beat-oriented like on Perdition City, and it is also a lot more sparse than anything on that album. The track begins with several minutes of quiet, gritty digital static sounds (which remain present through most of the EP), with electric piano chords, wordless vocals, light percussion samples, and various other electronic noises floating in and out at various points, before the track finally concludes with a calm ending of Garm singing a lullaby-like tune -- an effective contrast. Just to hammer the point home, the CD contains no metal or metal-related music, instead sharing more in common with experimental/electronic artists such as Coil, Pole, and Tarwater. It's a risky move for Ulver to be stepping into this territory, but here, at least, the band has managed to pull it off with a subtle counterpart to the more dramatic Perdition City. (Note: This release was limited to one pressing of just 2,000 copies.) ~ William York