DEAF CENTER

Deaf Center comprises of Norwegian multi-instrumentalist Erik K. Skodvin (aka Svarte Greiner) and pianist Otto A. Totland, whom operate at the axis of ambient, contemporary classical, and drone music. 

As old school friends, they both grew up in a small village in southern Norway, with each having a history of music-experimentation during the early internet days. At the start of the 2000’s they finally decided to collaborate. Their debut album “Pale Ravine” (2005), then made in their mid 20ties, was a majestic ambient / modern classical piece of homage to theatricality and the grand Norwegian landscapes. The record was based on field recordings, classical samples and electronic production, made with minimal tools at the time. “Pale Ravine” became a cult classic in the field since and was one of the early releases on the soon-to-become major force in experimental music – Type Records, where they also released their EP “Neon City”, “Owl Splinters” as well as several of Erik’s solo albums as Svarte Greiner.

Fast forward to 2011 and Erik had moved to Berlin. Through common friends in the music scene he met Nils Frahm, who ended up producing their second album “Owl Splinters”, which was a wildly different experience – mostly improvised and produced over a weekend in Nils’s Durton Studio using cello, piano and synths. The album became a turning point for the duo, who then started performing rare, yet celebrated piano / guitar & electronics duo performances at Festivals like Unsound, Rewire, Le Guess Who? amongst others.

Their third album came to be in 2019 after a meeting in Frahm’s new Funkhaus studio. “Low Distance” became the first ever album to be recorded at the new studio, which was a mixture of improvisation, electronics and finely detailed cinematic composition, partly also connected to Erik’s then recent residency at EMS studio in Stockholm. The new album was released on Berlin based boutique post-classical / ambient label Sonic Pieces, who is their new home together with Erik’s own Miasmah record label.

Recently, as of 2026, they have released several live recordings with Reverie (2025) and Trinitatis (2026) coming together as spontaneous compositions performed in very special moments and places. 2026 also saw their first new full-length album in 7 years, “Through Time”, focusing on the quiet pathways and grand boulevards of our relationship with time. 

Chain D.L.K explains it very well and says “Their achievement lies in recognizing that time is experienced not through abstractions but through accumulation: moments becoming memories, sounds becoming spaces, silences becoming meaning.”

Although Deaf Center has only released a handful of releases through the last 20+ years, the importance is on a timelessness, friendship and the duality of a warm human connection with otherworldly abstractions. Their music has been used in many film productions, like f.ex Joachim Trier’s “Oslo 31st of August” and “Louder than Bombs”.