Category: Storm Corrosion

Steven Wilson and Mikael Åkerfeldt’s 2012 ‘weird beautiful’ collaboration re-released in a Dolby Atmos surround sound mix

*****

“This is a very cinematic, impressionistic and immersive record. We just got together and it poured out of us. With this record you’re entering into a very unusual and unfamiliar sonic universe and that’s a very exciting thing to be part of.”

Steven Wilson, storm.corrosion.com
(archived)

Storm Corrosion – A Collaboration

Storm Corrosion was a collaboration between two band leaders – Steven Wilson of progressive rock band Porcupine Tree and Mikael Åkerfeldt of progressive metal band Opeth. They worked together on the project in Wilson’s home studio, No Man’s Land on various occasions between March 2010 and September 2011. The result was the band’s only album to date, Storm Corrosion, released in May 2012. Åkerfeldt and Wilson had first worked together when Wilson co-produced Opeth’s album Blackwater Park in 2001.

Influences

If fans expected the Storm Corrosion album to be written in the style of Blackwater Park, or the later Porcupine Tree albums which had strong metal riffs, they would have been disappointed. Instead, the collaboration produced something altogether stranger, but an album of which both men remain very proud. Wilson told Jonathan Horsley of Decibel Magazine that they both had, ‘a fondness for outsider music’, and that the album was inspired by Scott Walker, and Åkerfeldt’s love for the, ‘very dark, macabre, psychedelic folk music’ of British progressive folk band Comus from the early 1970s. Wilson also told Horsley that movies were a major influence – before going into the studio they would watch,

“…fairly surreal, dark, fairly experimental movies, David Lynch movies, Japanese ghost movies, and these would set a tone for where we were going.”

The resulting album is described by Wilson in a new documentary on the Blu-ray 2024 re-release of Storm Corrosion as, ‘weird beautiful.’

Part of a Trilogy

Wilson described the album as, ‘heavy, but without the use of metal vocabulary.’ In his mind, it created a trilogy with his 2011 solo album Grace for Drowning, which was recorded at the around the same time, and Opeth’s Heritage, also released in 2011. Both albums marked a change of direction; on the former Wilson experimented with a more jazz-inflected style, and on the latter Åkerfeldt embraced progressive rock. But neither album prepares the listener for Storm Corrosion. As the band’s website said, ‘it takes the listener on an unprecedented journey into realms yet undiscovered.’

Surround Sound and the new Dolby Atmos Mix

Wilson has been making surround mixes of his own and other bands’ albums for so long now that he has been asked to do a surround sound mix of King Crimson’s Red for the second time after he did his first surround mix of the album in 2009. He decided to teach himself the art of surround sound mixing after Elliot Scheiner created 5.1 mixes of the Porcupine Tree albums In Absentia and Deadwing.

Wilson’s first 5.1 mix was for Porcupine Tree’s 2007 classic album Fear of a Blank Planet. Remarkably, this first attempt was nominated for a Grammy, and Storm Corrosion was similarly nominated. More recently, Wilson has adapted his home studio to create mixes in Dolby Atmos as well as 5.1, and he mixed his last two solo albums The Future Bites and The Harmony Codex and the most recent Porcupine Tree album Closure/Continuation in Atmos. He launched The Harmony Codex in a surround sound playback in London in September last year. The 2024 re-release of Storm Corrosion on Blu-ray includes the 5.1 mix from 2012, and the new Dolby Atmos mix which is reviewed in detail below.

A Note on Dolby Atmos

Traditional 5.1 surround sound systems send discrete sounds to each of the separate channels with Left front, Right front, centre, Left rear and Right rear speakers (the ‘five’ of 5.1) and a subwoofer that handles low bass (the 0.1 or ‘point one’ of 5.1). Dolby Atmos is much more sophisticated and flexible than 5.1. It’s capable of producing up to 118 ‘sound objects’ at once, allowing the mixing engineer to move sounds around the space and place them very precisely in the surround sound image, adding height information so that the sound can come from above the listener, creating a truly immersive experience.

Originally designed for cinemas, Atmos has more recently entered the domestic market and can be used on stereo headphones, TV soundbars, laptops, tablets and phones as well as full-scale home cinema set-ups with speakers embedded in the ceiling or upward-firing speakers on top of the front Left and Right pair.

The beauty of the technology is that it automatically adapts to whatever configuration is used, provided the correct hardware and software are used. It’s widely available on Blu-ray (both audio and video discs) and on audio and video streaming services.

The Dolby Atmos Mix, Track by Track

1. Drag Ropes

The opening song, the first one written for the album, is a poignant tale of a hanging. Jess Cope, who created the video, that perfectly matches the song’s macabre and rather gothic atmosphere, told Lisa Cope that it’s about a witch being hanged. The twist is that the executioner is the lover of the alleged witch. The song’s protagonist is the executioner himself, who addresses the lover he is about to hang with affection,

Now my dear friend
Now for your sin
You're to suffer
Here it begins

The track opens with strings, beautifully recorded by London Session Orchestra at Angel Studios in Islington, North London, with a lovely sense of depth. The ambiguous chords feel similar to those that open ‘The Raven That Refused to Sing’ from Wilson’s 2013 solo album of the same name, creating a sense of anxious anticipation. Åkerfeldt’s vocals in the first verse are sweetly moving and intimate. A hesitant rising piano figure leads to the second verse, and a mellotron theme and a woodwind flurry from Ben Castle lead to verse three.

“Wilson and Åkerfeldt create a full choir of individual voices which surround and immerse the listener, a perfect demonstration of the stunning effect of Dolby Atmos.”

The track reveals its Dolby Atmos secrets gradually. After the third verse, subtle percussion from Porcupine Tree drummer Gavin Harrison appears to the left and right of the mix, either side of the front speakers. Wilson’s multi-tracked voice is spread across the surround sound picture in the chorus, representing the voice of the witch replying to the protagonist, her executioner.

A contemplative instrumental passage, with a full-bodied piano and evocative stings, leads to an astonishing section at around 5:00 where Wilson and Åkerfeldt create a full choir of individual voices which surround and immerse the listener, a perfect demonstration of the stunning effect of Dolby Atmos, as are the guitar riffs that soon join the complex picture. This is one of the strangest parts of the track, with its insistent repetition of the mantra ‘lies are manifold’, describing the many lies that the witch has told, the multiple voices suggesting that this is the voice of the crowd at the execution.

At around 6:50 there’s a gorgeous guitar solo from Åkerfeldt with rich strings and a lovely piano motif, before Åkerfeldt returns with verse four, then Wilson with the chorus and sweet woodwinds, bringing to an end a stunning track, easily the best on the album.

‘Drag Ropes’ is the only track from the album that Wilson and Åkerfeldt have performed live together, and once only, on Wilson’s solo tour in support of his 2015 album Hand. Cannot. Erase. on 28 September 2015 at the Royal Albert Hall in London. A stereo recording of that performance is included on the re-released album.

2. Storm Corrosion

The meaning of the title track often feels just out of reach, which is the case with many of the album’s lyrics. Wilson developed a technique of improvising lyrics when he was writing his first solo album Insurgentes (2008). He told Frank Jenks of the Listen In FULL podcast that there is a dream logic to the way he improvised the lyrics for that album,

‘What we dream has no bearing on reality – it’s almost like improvisation… we make leaps of logic and intellect that you would never make in a waking state.’  

The ‘fever dream’ state that Wilson describes in his book Limited Edition of One (see the caption to the album cover image above) may therefore relate to the style of lyrics on this album. Certainly, some of the lyrics are hard to unpick, such as,

Passed on the second hand slips outwards
Born in the curve the song drips endless
Thrown out the boy believes the secret
Grown up the dogs begin to reach it

But the words ‘storm corrosion’ do seem to have a clearer meaning, referring to the damage that a storm can do.

The track begins with the sound of a storm. A gently picked acoustic guitar accompanies Wilson’s tranquil voice, with added reverb on his wordless vocalising. Åkerfeldt provides a subtle guitar solo. So far, the mix is very simple, as there are only one or two guitars and a solo voice.

The first real hint of surround sound is from a shaker which drifts whimsically around the image. More robust percussion joins on either side as the track descends into sound effects with indeterminate strings, a more restrained ‘noise’ than some of the noise-rock on Wilson’s Insurgentes, vividly describing the storm as it corrodes nature and other objects.

In an unusual effect, the opening acoustic guitar reappears through the maelstrom, and the electrical storm is then switched on and off as the guitar continues to play. It’s easy to imagine an external presence turning a knob to switch the effect on and off.

When the vocals return, they are spread much more widely across the surround sound image, sounding warmer and more confident as if they have beaten the storm. The track ends with a pastoral instrumental section, until the storm returns with final flurry of strings that for the first time fills the whole of the surround sound picture. The storm has won after all.

3. Hag

According to Collins English Dictionary, the word ‘hag’ means, ‘an unpleasant or ugly old woman.’ It’s similar to the word ‘harridan’, meaning a belligerent old woman, which is the title of the opening track of Porcupine Tree’s 2022 album Closure/Continuation. But ‘hag’ has a secondary meaning, ‘witch’ that is probably more relevant here. We are back in the world of the opening track, ‘Drag Ropes’, where the witch is hanged following her imprisonment, and is left in ‘stony silence’ at her death,

Incarcerate in dread now
Separate the heart and you lose me you hag

Leave you hanging, falling, failing
Giving back your stony silence

The track begins with deeply introspective psychedelic folk. There’s a quietly haunting two note motif on guitar and piano, soon echoed by Wilson’s vocals which are so languorous that we hear a long breath like a sigh before he even starts to sing.

An instrumental section fills the surround sound image, with the shaker orbiting the listener. A single bass note, repeated like a heartbeat, creates a mesmerising pulse. But the momentum is suddenly lost, as children’s laughter leads to a double-length middle eight, ‘A corner of the churchyard’, with Wilson’s falsetto vocals brooding over a piano passage. Unexpectedly, rich backing vocals appear, surrounding the listener as the pulsing bass and shaker return. There’s a sudden descent into what is almost noise rock, with frenetic drumming from Harrison. but the song manages to retain a melody which is then repeated by quivering flute. We return to the introspection of the beginning, as we end on the word ‘silence.’

“There’s some beautiful music on there but it’s a demanding record. If you’re doing other shit as you listen to it, it’s going to pass by like elevator muzak. You really have to sit down and pay attention! If you allow it to sink in, it could be a life companion…”

Mikael Åkerfeldt, stormcorrosion.com
(archived)

4. Happy

The lyrics of this song are anything but happy, referring to the body of a dead lover. The style is still psychedelic folk, with voice and acoustic guitar. But an eerie mellotron choir soon joins in, a tritone above (‘the devil’s interval’) suggesting that the protagonist may have murdered the lover and is now bound by guilt to tend her grave forever.

Wind, blow through, my lover
Tend your grave forever

An echoing low note leads to the arrival of a sweet guitar from the distance and a lovely, wordless duet between Åkerfeldt and Wilson, before we return to the opening section. A gorgeous guitar solo, hauntingly placed on the extreme left of the surround sound image, brings a heart-stopping moment of beauty before the track is cut off brutally by a buzzing sound that flies around the listener.

5. Lock Howl

This is the only instrumental on the album. It begins with a single organ chord, followed by unison guitars coming from the left and right. This doubling of guitars is very common on Opeth and Porcupine Tree records, but unusually here they are hollow-sounding acoustic guitars, rather than distorted metal guitars. The two guitars sound out an insistent rhythm, offset against a hi-hat in the middle and added guitars at the rear, creating an immersive choir of guitars. A zither is strummed, and strings from the London Session Orchestra provide slow-moving chords as the track builds, until it falls away with a single percussive note in the rear speakers.

There’s a lively passage with handclaps and other percussive sounds, with a tune that keeps dropping away to nothing. We return to the opening organ chord and, a lovely woodwind section which sounds like a brief glimpse of the music of the spheres, the natural harmonics said to be produced by the movement of celestial objects. We return to the twin guitars of the opening, but this time with a discursive melody like plainsong, and again the complete surround image is populated as another slow string melody soars above. The track cuts off suddenly as a delighted Wilson says ‘Yeah!’ Well, exactly!

6. Ljudet Innan

The title of this song is Swedish for ‘the sound before’, or ‘ancient music.’ Again, the meaning of the words is just out of reach. On a literal level, the protagonist appears to be in a controlling relationship with a lover, ‘mine is what you are.’ But there could also be a metaphorical meaning, as the lover is waiting ‘in the sky’, perhaps referring to the storm of the title track.

The song begins with Åkerfeldt singing falsetto, very different from the death metal growls which he often uses on Opeth albums. His fragile vocals, accompanied only by reverberating electric piano, have a nostalgic, regretful feel that may relate to the title of the song, music that came from before. Slow-blooming strings gradually appear, sounding like early Tangerine Dream from their 1974 album Phaedra, a moment of contemplative beauty.

The next section, with languid drumming from Harrison, sounds like Rain Tree Crow, a brief offshoot of the art rock band Japan which featured Richard Barbieri of Porcupine Tree on keyboards, There’s also a hint of the intense introspection of Talk Talk on albums like Spirt of Eden (1988). Åkerfeldt’s pensive guitar briefly brings elegant ornamentation to the song (another link to ‘ancient music’ in the form of Early Music.) The second verse is sung by Wilson in the introspective style of the late Mark Hollis, lead singer of Talk Talk. A final, anthemic guitar melody with rich mellotron strings and passionate vocalising from Wilson brings the track to a majestic conclusion.

Conclusion

As Mikael Åkerfeldt admitted Storm Corrosion isn’t an easy listen, although it is certainly not as difficult a listen as the albums Wilson has produced for his Bass Communion project such as Ghosts on Magnetic Tape. Both albums take a while to give up their secrets. In the new Dolby Atmos mix of Storm Corrosion, the opening track makes the most startling use of the new technology. On other tracks the effect is more muted, but when surround sound is used it’s more effective as it is used sparingly.

As Steven Wilson told Jonathan Horsley, the best records are those that, ‘you can intellectualise’ because of the structure, the production, the way the music unfolds, and thoughtful lyrics. But there need to be beautiful melodies, ’emotional kicks…and a deeper soulful presence’ in the music too. Storm Corrosion achieves all these things, creating a dark, contemplative, introspective masterpiece of psychedelic folk.

Sources

Wilson, Steven, Limited Edition Of One – How To Succeed In The Music Industry Without Being Part of The Mainstream (Constable, an imprint of Little, Brown April 2022) 

stormcorrosion.com (archived)

Cope, Lisa, Mikael Åkerfeldt & Jess Cope talk about the making of Storm Corrosion’s official video for ‘Drag Ropes’… (Vimeo 30/09/2012)

Horsley, Jonathan, INTERVIEW: Storm Corrosion’s Steven Wilson (Decibel Magazine 21/05/12)

Collins English Dictionary (Harper Collins)

Jenks, Frank, Steven Wilson/Porcupine Tree…with Frank Jenks (Listen in FULL podcast August 2010) 

Roberts, Becky, Dolby Atmos: what is it? How can you get it? (What Hi-fi, updated 19/02/2024)

All lyrics are taken from the Blu-ray booklet

Technical Details

The album was auditioned in Dolby Atmos 7.1 on a Sony Blu-Ray Player with a Marantz receiver and Bowers and Wilkins surround sound speakers, but without height speakers.