You know you’re in the presence of serious musicians when you overhear such remarks as: “Remember guitar is coloration,” “So far I don’t have any BPM” and “Just create ambient sounds that help us keep on the beat.”
Riven, formed in August 2013, are all about sound. Twenty-nine-year-old founder and frontman Chris von Heland from Sweden describes their style as “a mix between Coldplay and U2… we really explore different sounds, from Radiohead to Incubus.”
Ambitious von Heland calls what they do “advanced music” and is keen to cover every tone and pitch possible. A gander at their rehearsal room shows Riven aren’t joking. Amidst wires and Hercules microphone stands there’s so much equipment it reminds one of a mixture between the Tardis and a cockpit.
On the floor are four pedal trains full of tools with names like Octa-Switch, Rat, Deluxe Memory Man, Black Finger, Switch Blade, Dominator, Snark and Schizophrenic. Von Heland even has a mobile phone strapped to his electric guitar to change the sound the strings make after strumming – all with the swipe of a finger.
Standing in the center of his cohorts, the passionate Swede waxes lyrical about his artistic intentions to his fellow audiophiles. Around him are Julien Massé on drums from France, Jakk Wang on guitar from Guangzhou and René LaForge on bass from Quebec.
When they’re wired in, jacked in, strapped up and playing, Riven are like a wall of pure rock swallowing up everything in its path. It’s a finely tuned mixture of Pink Floyd on acid, or Pink Floyd on ever more acid and a touch of crank – cerebral and eclectic. It’s understandable why von Heland says, “Chinese audiences aren’t used to it.”
Come June 7 and it’s the official release of their EP with tracks ‘It’, ‘Wireless’ and ‘Hollow’, the latter’s lyrics exploring antimatter and the meaning of the universe: “It is one or the other/Or equal of the two/In the third there is nothing/In the first there is me and you.”
// Riven will be performing on June 26 as part of their EP release tour. Hooley’s, No. 101, 8 Xingsheng Lu, Zhujiang Xincheng, Tianhe District, Guangzhou 广州市天河区珠江新城兴盛路8号101铺 (020-3886 2675)
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