
A highly personal instrumental journey by Norwegian producer and DJ Ove Henriksen, Melnøya is an odd collection of instrumental techno, ambient and noise that asks difficult, often confounded questions. There’s a particular kind of innovation to his techno scenes that’s magnetic – whether it’s the use of narratorial voice samples over a fluttering ambient pulse or the use of a synthesized voice repeating phrases that would be recognisable from various ambient noise acts.
His compositions also have a surreal sense of flow, with tiny details lodging themselves in tightly controlled electronics, whilst the overall effect is like a cracked glass of light that’s slowly starting to diffuse. Further, the voice is switched up and manipulated in a way that resembles a progsonik loop, before the stream of voice is interrupted and the amount of wobbling gets more and more obvious. Many tracks are minimal in approach, but the drone creates a dynamic that’s both mysterious and surprising.