BAND OF THE WEEK: Mouth Wound

An absolute landmark in the noise/dark ambient genres, and beyond.

Though this feature is coming with a couple of months delay, especially since I have even had the privilege of having listened to ‘Tallow’ a few months before, I do urge all of you at the back there to pay attention anyway. I know a lot of people switch off at the mention of “noise”, especially when used as a genre and not a smartass description of loud music, but Mouth Wound, the project entirely conducted by Danish multi-instrumentalist Trine Paaschburg, really deserves to transcend any kind of mental blocks anyone might have towards any style or approach to music.

Before anything else, however, allow me just a minute to properly celebrate the return of the Handmade Birds record label to our midst. One of the most daring and essential sources of experimental music during the all too short years in which it was active during its first incarnation (2010-2015), it is a splendid pleasure to have them back in action since last year, especially as it is clear they are carrying the same ethos that made them so important in the first place. Just check out their fantastic release catalogue for 2024 alone. On top of it, this Mouth Wound release is actually the first on a new series of Handmade Birds releases called Literary Criticism.

That it also means that the label owner, Rich Loren Balling, is similarly bringing the much-missed Pyramids back to life with a forthcoming new album (of which you will surely hear more about in this here digital rag, yes), well, that’s just the type of awesomeness overkill that makes us wonder when the other shoe is about to drop. If you’re worried whether ‘Pythagoras’ sucks, well, I can’t tell you that it doesn’t, even if it will catch a lot of you unaware, even old Pyramids fans. Similarly the rest of the releases so far have all been their usual kind of fantastic, so maybe, just maybe, that proverbial other shoe will be quiet and undropped for the time being.

So yeah, Mouth Wound’s new album does fit into that fantastic part, especially because it manages to defy the very expectations we might have of what a noise album means or intends to. Starting by the fact that even calling ‘Tallow’ “a noise album” is mightily reductive. As Trine has already accustomed us with the project’s previous releases, her approach is diverse and dynamic, and you can equally fit this into dark ambient, industrial or electronic music as much as “noise”. Thing is, with noise and most of the mentioned genres, you already have a set kind of expectation, you know beforehand you’ll be thrown into a buzzing mess of negative energy, harshness, chaos, coldness. While indeed a lot of ‘Tallow’ is indeed scary and/or intimidating and can be described by those words, a lot of it also, crucially, evokes the exact opposite. There’s warmth, there’s tranquillity and there’s warmth here, but crucially (again), never at the expense of volume and intensity. Loud=bad and quiet=good is a nice dynamic, but it’s also a little bit infantile in art, so Trine doesn’t need minimalism or barely-there absence of sound to immerse you in something positive, as a piece like ‘The Body As Plexus’ fully exemplifies.

Better yet, because we humans are complex little creatures and we rarely feel things in an isolated vacuum, and because this record intends to deal with, according to Trine’s own explanation, “themes such as physical/existential malaise and the search for tranquil,” sometimes those two vibes are portrayed simultaneously, like on the staggering ‘Chair Of Tallow’, where the noise is tearing your heart to shreds while Trine’s siren-like chanting swiftly heals it back to life and fills you with hope. Her voice is in fact one of the highlights throughout, shapeshifting at will to fit the desired mood, and it always feels like it’s being dredged from the very depths of her soul.

You know what, this isn’t a rat race and gone are the days where deadlines ruled my work as a writer. I actually do feel like this is the kind of album that you should wait a couple of months to talk about, and now I can safely shout from the top of my hill of familiarity with it, that it is a fantastic piece that will fight you, serenade you, hurt you, but ultimately, inspire you and become a part of you.

One last note just to tell you that, as it seems (I’ve never witnessed one myself yet, unfortunately), Mouth Wound’s live performances are an intensely harrowing experience, which makes sense given the organic, “live feel” that ‘Tallow’ also exhales. So be sure to catch her whenever there’s a show near you.

It’s also been a huge pleasure to discuss all of this with Trine herself, so check out our conversation below.

‘Tallow’ is now out via Handmade Birds.
You can find all useful Mouth Wound links here.

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“Mouth Wound is a space created to express, react and reflect on experiences, combatting inner noise with outer noises.”
— Trine Paaschburg

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Can you tell us a little bit about the origins of the Mouth Wound project? You already have a few years and a few releases in your history with this name, how was its creation, and what were your initial intentions?
Trine Paaschburg: I started Mouth Wound in my teens as a way to share difficult emotions that could be hard to put into words. It became a place I could return to through its various iterations. I felt isolated at that point in my life and found it easier to connect this way, at least that is how I reflect on it today. The intention was for it to be an outlet to process experiences and pent up energy, and it still is in some form. The goal keeps taking different shapes but the gist of it is catharsis, be it by concept or by volume of sound, I like to think of it as an exorcism combined with a cleansing ritual. You drown out the mental noise and flush out the debris with a whole lot of sound.

How do you feel you have evolved since those first releases, and what do you think ‘Tallow’ brings that might be new for you?
Trine: There has been a shift from material written as a way to understand something painful in the past, towards an approach that deals with what is here right now, and with that, a preference for whatever I find interesting to ingest at the moment. Now it is more about my surroundings, reacting to something. I started exploring that on the 2023 album ‘Nothing Will Belong to Us’ where I built a large part of the material from live recordings/sampling. With ‘Tallow’ I wanted to deepen that, keep an open mind to be influenced by the things I happen to be in proximity of that seem urgent or vibrant without thinking too much about it. This resulted in the album being heavily influenced by a university assignment I was writing about Beuys and his use of beef tallow or rendered fat. I thought it was an interesting material in the way it is used for both feed and cleaning properties as well as being a product of something that is part of insulating and storing energy in a body. The concept of something that feeds and cleanses you while having the capacity to contain energy and warmth, I think that is beautiful from a creative perspective. What sets this album apart from other attempts is a more relaxed approach to doing things, not being locked into a sound or perception of how something finished should be.

How is the creation of these songs, what is the initial spark that usually leads to a new song/piece? And once you have the basic idea nailed down, how much do you usually tinker with it and add stuff, how much work actually goes into it typically?
Trine: It varies, sometimes it is just a nice sound snippet, field recording or idea of a sound that I work from. Other times it is a concept, a picture or a description of something I come across that seem to be canonical. When the basic idea is nailed it evolves naturally, I avoid spending to much time on tinkering. I like to get stuff done quickly, if it doesn’t work early in the process I discard and try again. Thinking too much gets in the way, more often than not.

‘Tallow’ seems particularly intense and harrowing, emotionally. Would you like to talk a little bit more about its themes and what you are trying to transmit with it?
Trine: The preoccupation with something that is nurturing, cleansing and storing energy was paired with some personal health issues that kind of seeped into it all. I was dealing with some serious burnout, I had to work quickly in short bursts when I had a moment of clarity. I wanted to convey something abrasive, with a very desperate wish to pull something into it that could tell me where to go next, how to feed, and get some energy back. In a broader perspective I see ‘Tallow’ as a collection of incantations, pleads for getting power back, wrapped in themes of physical and mental constraints. I found some personal symbolism in Beuys' work ‘Fettstuhl (Fat Chair)’, where a wedge of animal fat, pierced with a piece of wire, rests on a battered chair. It resonated with this feeling of an inert but living thing, exhausted by mortality. I would also recommend to read the artis't’s claims about this work, it’s a very interesting story.

What kind of equipment (if you’d like to reveal something about that, of course) have you used for the creation of ‘Tallow’s songs, mostly? Do you usually change/update your gear from release to release, to achieve your goals better?
Trine: Sure thing! It does change a lot depending on what instrument I am obsessed w using at the moment, the last year it has been dictated by the need for it to be simple and easy to travel with, a couple of portable sampler/looper pedals, a small and cheap mixer mainly used for feedback, paired with a chain of various delay and distortion pedals, I am especially fond of using a clone of that Dwarfcraft Fuzz with starve also the metal zone that just has this horrible sound in the best way. I got my hands on a used and affordable SOMA Lyra last year that I use some of the time, but it is in need of repair right now so I make do with the pedals. I really love the Lyra 8 though, I am considering getting the small 4 version for easier portability, so I do not fuck up the more expensive one again haha. I also got sent a TH/FX VOXVORTEX that I have been having a lot of fun experimenting with, It creates such a full range of sounds that I have used it as a sole sound source for a couple of shows, it fits well into my preference for using voice and controlled feedback a lot with an element of beautiful unpredictability. I would say the gear setup changes once every six months, to make it more effective and to keep it fresh. If I get too used to a certain setup, it loses all the fun for me. Also I would not have the nerves to bring along a ton of expensive gear with me, I need to use mainly things that are easy to replace without ruining me financially.

You’re actually premiering a new division of Handmade Birds, Literary Criticism, is this a special thing for you? Do you feel “at home”, so to speak, in a label with these characteristics?
Trine: I have been a huge fan of Rich’s releases for some time so I was excited to get a chance to work with this label in its new era. The labels focus on tactility with the importance of music as physical media really appeals to me, it shows a pure love for music as an artistic object on its own merit, while reflecting back on other forms of physical artistic expressions and traditions. I feel it is a home in the best company, the releases last year alone is a list of favourite artist like Sissy Spacek, The Rita, Merzbow etc, what’s not to love!

How would you envision the future of Mouth Wound? Is this project essentially you, do you plan to keep doing this while you yourself do music? What other projects are you involved in?
Trine: MW is a space created to express, react and reflect on experiences, combatting inner noise with outer noises. MW will evolve and dissolve with me, I envision to make something eventually that is truly horrible and beautiful hopefully and to keep connecting more with the community this type of approach puts me in, discover new corners of this kind of world, as soon as I am back to being more than a wedge of beef tallow on a crumbling chair.

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