Andy Winter – “Uncountably Infinite” Video (NSFW) (Stereogum Premiere)
Norwegian keyboardist Andy Winter is perhaps as notable for his collaborators as his musical portfolio. He’s the man behind the neo-classical metal act Winds — which features among its cohort drummer Jan Axel von Blomberg, aka Hellhammer, the longest-standing member of black-metal pioneers Mayhem. (Hellhammer played alongside Euronymous, Attila, and Varg “Count Grishnackh” Vikernes on Mayhem’s 1994 album De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas, perhaps the most important black metal record of all time.) Winter is also known among metal nerds for his work with the Bellingham, Washington-based prog metal band Sculptured, and Sculptured is probably best known as the band founded by Don Anderson before he went on to play guitar in revered gray-metal kings Agalloch[1] (whose 2010 album, Marrow Of The Spirit, I have argued, is the best metal album to be produced this millennium). In fact, Sculptured has, at points, featured three of Agalloch’s four current members: Anderson, bassist Jason William Walton, and vocalist/guitarist John Haughm. Winter recruited friends from both those projects for the track “Uncountably Infinite” from his solo LP, Incomprehensible. The song features Hellhammer on drums, Walton on bass, and an amazing guitar solo from Anderson. It also features a vocal from Sigh’s Mirai Kawashima. That’s especially notable here because, along with Mayhem, Sigh were one of the true pioneering acts of black metal, and one of the very, very few bands (five total) to release music on Euronymous’ Deathlike Silence Productions label, so “Uncountably Infinite” is an extremely unusual cross-continental pairing of old and new black metal superstars. And where most of Winter’s music tends toward the avant-garde, “Uncountably Infinite” is notably traditional-sounding, although it has enough oddball flourishes to keep it from actually resembling anything in the canon.
Today, we’ve got the video for “Uncountably Infinite,” and I’m not gonna lie: It’s weird as fuck. It’s like Behemoth’s “Blow Your Trumpets Gabriel” as imagined by Gummo-era Harmony Korine. In my opinion, that’s something well worth watching, of course. The clip stars burlesque dancer Tristan Risk, and while it’s technically not unsafe for work, there are enough flesh-colored bodysuits and dubiously concealing spiked bikinis (plus general WTF-ness) that I’m giving it the NSFW tag just in case. So if you’re in a safe space, watch it.
Incomprehensible is out now via The End and available at iTunes.
[1]On the subject of Agalloch, the band just announced the details of their forthcoming fifth LP, which landed at No. 7 in our list of the 100 Most Anticipated Albums Of 2014. The album’s title is The Serpent & The Sphere, and it will be released on May 13 via Profound Lore.