The work is divided into four "regions" centered around a specific national anthem or conglomeration of anthems. Around these "centers" are juxtaposed electronically generated sounds and voiced multi-lingual phrases; i.e., a commingling of the "known" with the abstract and unknown. From the composer's notes: "When one integrates in a composition known music with unknown new music, one can hear especially well how it was integrated: untransformed, more or less transformed, transposed, modulated, etc. The more self-evident the WHAT, the more attentive the listener becomes to the HOW. Naturally, national anthems are more than that: they are "loaded" with time, with history - with past, present, and future. They accentuate the subjectivity of peoples in a time when uniformity is all too often mistaken for universality. One must also make a clear distinction between subjectivity - and correspondence between subjective musical objects - and individualistic isolation and separation. The composition Hymnen is not a collage"

Nomination

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Neptune - Gong Lake

Neptune are a fantastic experimental noise rock band. Building their own custom-made instruments out of pieces of scrap metal, they exhibit a sound unique in its weezing, throbbing intensity. Gong Lake is something of an Industrial noise album, comprising of angular, off-kilter compositions driven by relentlessly mechanical rhythms and swathes of warped texture. I'm actually struggling to describe this album, guess that's the point of the album club - to discuss the hard-to-explain.

I'll leave it there, ending with a declaration of my love for this record.