Grøte - Prognosis

Grøte is a drone and ambient music collective which I presume was found in 2018. The first release from the project was in January of 2018 where the artist released their fifty-minute debut album "Silencia". Their debut was quickly followed by "Dúfu", a nearly five-minute single described as a "post-modern shoegaze lullaby for all those who wander through the night." Grøte did not release another piece until January of 2020 with the thirty-six minute oceanic expedition "Sjávarorgan". A year later, we land in the present with Grøte's latest piece "Prognosis". It is also important to note that, as stated with previous releases, Grøte makes their music specifically for headphone audio. So slap on the best pair of studio headphones you have and dive into "Prognosis" with me.



The album begins with the twelve-and-a-half minute piece titled 'Prognosis I'. The first four minutes of the album did the bare minimum for an ambient / drone song. You get what you expect; a couple of synth lines stretched out to what seems like infinity and beyond without much diversion in design. Around the four-minute mark, some static background noise filtered through my headphones and waves of synths began to make their mark. This, to me, was much more interesting than what I was experiencing; it was, in fact, soothing and relaxing. The rest of the song follows suit, varying the levels of pitches of electronic notes. The song ends off with the sounds of sirens playing out in the background as a singular note brought us into 'Prognosis II'.

The continuous stream of drone and ambiance brought me to a darker pit where drops of water were commonplace. Much like 'Prognosis I', the first couple of minutes of 'Prognosis II' are rather dry of interesting sound, but as the song moves forward so does the experimental nature of the artist. Hymn-like notes play in the second-half of the song and are quite beautiful and cinematic. I wasn't a fan of how the song ended; the volume is casually lowered over a period of two-minutes until I was left with barely a sound to stick with. 

While Grøte has plentiful experience with sound design and can easily strike up amazing drone and ambient pieces, I believe they waste their time trying to build up the song. Rather than allowing their beautiful waving, synthetic notes to experiment sooner in the song, I have to drudge through minutes' worth of sounds that I can easily find from any other drone and ambient producer on the market. The fortunate aspect of this, however, is that once I get past that initial portion of the song I'm thrown into a pretty good ambient and drone study. Grøte's production and skill is remarkable, but their song structure needs arrangement. I also think that a few additional textures within their pieces would liven up their arrangements if not to further stand out from the crowd. Nonetheless, despite my complaints, I do come off of "Prognosis" with well wishes for Grøte's future. "Prognosis" is not a perfect release by any means necessary, but it is one that is soothing and relaxing if a bit boring in certain stretches. 

This review was commissioned through our Ko-fi page.
Feb 07 2021