Deathprod

Under the Deathprod alias, Norwegian musician and producer Helge Sten crafts noise-infused dark ambient using an assortment of self-built electronics, Theremins, echo machines, and assorted equipment that he collectively terms his Audio Virus. Though Sten’s recorded output as Deathprod stays relatively modest, he maintains an extensive career as producer, engineer, and collaborator, above all as a member of Supersilent and as a recurring partner of Motorpsycho. Widely viewed as a landmark of its style, his 2004 release Morals and Dogma stands as the most celebrated solo effort to date. More than ten years elapsed before the next Deathprod projects surfaced: a 2015 split with Biosphere and the stark Occulting Disk in 2019. In 2022 came Sow Your Gold in the Foliated Earth, realized on the custom instruments invented by Harry Partch, followed in 2023 by Compositions, a collection of concise minimalist drone works.

Sten launched the Deathprod project in 1991 with a limited cassette edition. His unsettling debut album Treetop Drive appeared in 1994, demonstrating an ability to shape desolate, spectral environments through acoustic sources and inventive homemade recording methods. Two years later arrived Imaginary Songs from Tristan da Cunha, which includes the half-hour choral piece “The Contraceptive Briefcase II.” Deathprod joined Norwegian ambient techno originator Biosphere (Geir Jenssen) in 1998 for a split CD offering new interpretations of compositions by Norwegian composer Arne Nordheim.

Morals and Dogma, issued in 2004, marked Deathprod’s most widely praised recording to that point by merging his shadowy ambient layers with somber strings, harmonium, and musical saw; a simultaneous box set bearing the artist’s name gathered nearly his entire catalogue up to then, Morals and Dogma included. The 2006 10" EP 6-Track collected Sten’s remixes for artists such as Nils Petter Molvær and Murcof. In 2014 Sten worked with Led Zeppelin bassist John Paul Jones in the duo Minibus Pimps. A further split with Biosphere, titled Stator, was released on Touch in 2015. Smalltown Supersound issued Occulting Disk in 2019, Deathprod’s first full-length in fifteen years, described as an anti-fascist ritual; the limited EP Dark Transit appeared shortly afterward. Sow Your Gold in the Foliated Earth (2022) features works composed for the self-designed instruments of avant-garde composer Harry Partch; these pieces originated in live performances by Ensemble Musikfabrik, with the recording serving as the audio score later transcribed for the ensemble. Early in 2023 Deathprod presented Compositions, seventeen pieces sequenced in the order of their creation.