Hard, heavy and Ølten

Ølten are a three-piece committed to the basic power of guitar, drums, bass – and no vocals. “Ambiance”, released on 2 November on Hummus Records, is their second album. If the title conjures up visions of smoky jazz clubs or even ambient electronica, nothing could be farther from the truth. Ølten’s music is loud, intense and feral. They call it “post rock sludge”.

Christophe Macquat, Sébastien Bandelier and Marc Theurillat hail from deeply rural Jura, an area on the Northern cusp between French and German Switzerland that fought long, hard, and sometimes with explosives, for independence as a „canton“ (the Swiss version of an English county) in the 1970s. They formed Ølten in 2012, happily admitting to the influence of the likes of Cult of Luna and Sunn O))). In 2016/17 they participated in the Opération Iceberg 2.

Here’s what it says on their homepage: „Have you ever seen a wild boar pedalling a military bike with a couple of microphones sticking out of its arse? This is the kind of sight that can occasionally be witnessed in the forests of the Watch Valley, where these guys are from. As the distillery blows up, it’s loud as hell, it digs trenches in the road, pulverising dry leaves. This is the kind of image that depicts Ølten the best.“ And who’s going to argue with that?

„Ambiance“ is released on various formats, including black vinyl, coloured vinyl, and CD with digisleeve, physically distributed by Season of Mist (France), Membran (Germany/Austria), Plastic Head (UK/EU), The Orchard (USA) and Irascible (Switzerland), digitally worldwide by The Orchard.

Ølten
Hummus Records
Season of Mist
Membran
Plastic Head
The Orchard
Irascible
Opération Iceberg 2