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Elektronavn: Cosmic Continuum Cd on Ikuisuus January 2008

"[...] Like that wall in Jerusalem, the train whistle proves the inherent presence of chaos and violence in order. Walls and wars are the ghosts that move through this music, and hours after listening to Cosmic Continuum I can still feel the anguished wails. But, and this is most important, the experience isn’t abject like witnessing a car wreck or a bomb exploding, but reverent. Even as the whistle fades out, I can still feel the impact."                   - Joel Elliot / CokemachineGlow april 2008  LINK

 "Western art aims at awakening passions; sacred art aims at damping them down," says Magnus Olsen Majmon, the young Dane behind Elektronavn, quoting the Tibetan Buddhist monk Matthieu Ricard. When Western music engages sacred ideas, it typically gravitates towards either a meditative or an ecstatic extreme. In Majmon's crowded polyglot chants, how he reconciles these extremes is the central drama.
To be sure, on the two 20 minute compositions here, ecstatic signifiers abound: swelling snares, crashing cymbals, phalanxes of reeds and voices, droning mouth harps. But Majmon, originally a drummer who knew how to swing before he could play 4/4 rock, creates diffuse yet recognisable pulses that undergird both pieces. On "I", he moves between an udu drum and tight snare rolls. On "II", he uses an intoned cello pattern and a clutch of snare hits and rimshots to imply a groove. Preferring acoustic timbres, Majmon avoids the trodden path of ecstatic excess - volume and ear-shredding electronics - and settles into deeper investigations of his ingredients.
As the album unfolds, Majmon's considerable arranging skills become evident. He takes primitive, rough hewn parts and layers them into a mammoth close harmony that continually shifts to reveal new relationships breeding in the labyrinthine background. He builds a deranged chorus from shrieks, howls and screams on "I" into a spectral cloud. Aside from one clumsy fadeout in the middle of "I", he knows what sounds fit well together - hear especially the gently oscillating swathes of double reeds and harmonica at the end of "I" - and when to deploy them." - Matthew Wuethrich  The Wire #290 April 2008  LINK

[...] The recording acknowledges the primacy of the present. [...] Listening is like continuously zooming closer and closer in on a fractal, an endless cycle of perceiving, first the general contours of the music and then perceiving more and more detail as sounds bleed together and apart.[...] - Experimusic.com march 08 Link

[...] I musiken anar jag Magnus Olsen Majmons intresse för buddistisk filosofi. Ett meditativt grundackord löper skivan igenom. Även i de mest stökiga och komplexa partierna finns det ett sökande lugn, som lyckas utvinna en tidlöshet ur kompositionerna. [...] - Jens Holmberg / Sound of Music LINK  

[...] Man kommer mere til at tænke på Ivan Malinovskis formulering om, at "Der er ingen løsning eller ligevægt / Der er ingen bolig på jorden", end man mindes om traditionel buddhistisk musiks ophøjede ro, når man hører Cosmic Continuum. Det er et værk, der søger det kosmiske kontinuum, men ikke finder det. Heldigvis, for det er egentlig der, albummet bliver interessant: I sin fragmentariske, men alligevel konsekvente mediering mellem Vestens splittelse og Østens ro. Metafysisk såvel som strukturelt.[...] - Steffen B. Pedersen/ Geiger maj 08 LINK

"[...]the latest opus "Cosmic Continuum" sees him once again stretch out and tackle the universe. Wow! Fuck! Damn! Hell! are only a few expletives that escaped from my mouth on initial listening session.[...]" - Tom Sekowski / Gaz-eta june 08 LINK

"[...]Elektronavn manage to create a sound full of tension, while steering away from being directly confrontational, making for an enchanting and incredibly engaging listen that grows with each rotation."            -Cory Card / Foxy Digitalis may 08 LINK

"Two fine long suites by this highly productive dronning Dane. You get the impression he's playing about a trillion instruments on this, and simultaneously trying to convey ideas about reworking every musical form from 1960s free jazz to Swedish avant-opera singing; given that potential for overload and excess, it's astonishing what a coherent finnished product he offers up. Yes, the wailing voices in this cosmic continuum could be those of rejoicing angels or caterwauling demons trapped in a caged-up hell - so ambigious is the tone we can't decide wither way. Few solo artistes working in similar modes put as much care and craft into their work as Magnus Olsen Majmon; in this instance, what may appear at first listen to be another aimless drone-work is packed with scads of fascinating, ever-changing details and is a very compelling listen. I'd also say he delivers on the 'cosmic' promise far more succesfully than many other young players who make similar boasts of sailing the galaxies in hand-made boats. Note the hand-drawn (by Majmon) versions of mystical symbols on the covers."
-Ed Pinsent / The Sound Projector #17 2008/2009

"Extrañamente lo primero que se viene a la mente cuando uno escucha este disco es una mujer. Magnus Olsen, navegador danés en las aguas de la conciencia da color al té marítimo más confuso. Es que hay cierto aire de extravío en este gran disco que lo tiene cantando/confundiéndose como una mujer. Pero no dejemos que esta pequeña duda nos vaya de a poco llenando de temor y dejemos que la espiral danzante del infinito continuo nos invite a pasar del otro lado [...]". -[i] De Velvet #32 february 2009 LINK