DisAgreement Online

Jacob Faurholt has been releasing a lot of music for the last twenty years, most of it under his own name, some of it under his alter ego Crystal Shipsss, which works as the noisier and more experimental side of his otherwise lo-fi indie folk sound. Now he has another project in the works: Statisk Støj, which feels like two-third Jacob Faurholt and one-third Crystal Shipsss. The biggest difference are the vocals, which this time are in his native Danish. In the words of the artist, this is a very personal record, but then haven’t most of his album displayed a kind of naked intimacy that often make the listener feel like a voyeur?

The fact of the matter is that this first self-titled album is actually very good, with especially the first half being some of the best Jacob Faurholt has ever done. The opener Udgang is more or less what you have come to expect from him, except that this sad ballad is accompanied by piano, mellotron, distorted electric guitar and a simple beat. It’s one of those songs you won’t forget anytime soon. Koret is a very short ballad performed on acoustic guitar, before the equally short Dig shows off one of the album’s few, maybe only, song(s) with a faster pace: nice! The title track Statisk Støj is an incredibly bleak piece of doom folk with haunting female backing vocals and a synth melody that sounds like a broken mellotron. My personal favourite is Hirtshals which starts with an extremely distorted guitar, reminding of early Sonic Youth, and then evolving into a catchy indie noise rock song, despite the dark story behind the song.

The second half of the album has a generally mellower touch, starting with Giganterne which sounds like lo-fi would have sounded in the eighties. Englenes sang starts as an acoustic ballad but allows some heavily distorted guitar in its second half. Fra bunden de ser adds a shuffling lo-fi beat to its melancholic structure. Finally Det knitrede, det støjede adds some punch again. Written as a tribute to Low, whose Mimi Parker died too early in late 2022, this is dark doomish track has also been the album’s first single. It all ends with I flammens skær, which is a minute of acoustic guitar ballad, followed by a one-minute ambient outro.

At a good half hour, Statisk Støj is not a very long album, but it is quite an entertaining ride. Jacob Faurholt got some assistance from his wife Nadia Sharpe Faurholt and his daughter daughter Polly Sharpe Faurholt on vocals, plus some other musicians like Soren Brothers (Man Meets Bear, Ur Audio Visual Records) and Jens Christian Madsen (Tjaere+Fjer). The album was mastered by James Plotkin (OLD, Khanate), which might explain the occasional extremely distorted drone guitars. Those familiar with Jacob Faurholt’s body of work will be happy to learn that Statisk Støj fits in nicely within his musical projects. It’s actually nice to hear him sing for once in his native language. Like always, fans of lo-fi indie folk with an edge will be in for a treat.