Lars (Lachen, or Lach’n) Jonsson is something of a legend in Swedish progressive rock, especially in the genre of Rock-In-Opposition. This album is a reissue of his first disc, and it is as filled with weird, jagged piano-based avant-prog.
From Linnea Hjertén’s Bandcamp site:
“Born from the synthesis of Swedish folk melodies and ritual ambient, Linnea Hjertén’s debut album “Nio systrar” (‘Nine sisters’) is a wordless invocation of primordial energy – a psychoacoustic gateway to altered states of consciousness.
Each of the nine tracks brings us deeper into the cycle of spiritual death and rebirth, stripping away the old to make way for the new. With a musical maturity far beyond her years, Hjertén channels the ethereal beauty of Dead Can Dance, the spellbinding chants of Kari Rueslåtten, and the minimalist Nordic atmosphere of Forndom.
[…]
With an expansive love for diverse genres – from ambient to folk, from jazz to various forms of metal – her music is less about the style and more about a different quality, sound, or purpose. Trained in music engineering, Linnea relishes the creative journey from inner melody to final production, unearthing the exact tools needed to craft the perfect musical space.”
This post is dedicated to my dear brother in music, Shane Beck, because he turned me on to this magnificent band. My Brother The Wind is something of a supergroup comprising of Nicklas Barker of Anekdoten, Makajodama’s Mathias Danielsson, and Magnolia’s Ronny Eriksson & Tomas Eriksson. The music is a bit less metal-influenced, and more in the tradition of Swedish progressive and psychedelic rock. It’s dark, mellow, and if you’re more into Pink Floyd’s deeper psychedelic excursions (not the famous stuff, but the weirder), you’re going to appreciate these guys.
Lost Tribe Sound has another release featured this week! This one pairs two leading composers, Dag Rosenqvist & Aaron Martin, working together creating a filmic masterpiece. The music is tense, influenced by everything from classical music to ethereal. From the press release:
“American and Swedish composers Aaron Martin and Dag Rosenqvist came together in 2011 under the name FROM THE MOUTH OF THE SUN. Their first album Woven Tide was released by Experimedia in 2012 and they returned in 2015 for their second album Into the Well. In 2016, three pieces from Woven Tide played an integral role in David Wingo’s score for Jeff Nichols’s Warner Bros. feature Midnight Special. Their third album, Hymn Binding was released with Lost Tribe Sound in September 2017, followed by the EP Sleep Stations in 2018, and 2021’s acclaimed Light Caught the Edges. Also in 2021, the duo released an original score for the Oscar shortlisted documentary by Jimmy Goldblum, A Broken House (Dronarivm).
Using a vast array of acoustic and electric instruments, including cello, piano, banjo, pump organ, and guitar, while utilizing analog equipment, Aaron and Dag craft unique musical landscapes full of contrasts, where melodies and ominous textures intertwine. Since 2005, both artists have also had their solo efforts released by influential imprints like Preservation, Miasmah, Type, and Fang Bomb. Dag and Aaron also created the original score for Joshua Weinstein’s film Menashe (A24), released in 2017.”
As a practicing Eastern Orthodox Christian, this Jesus music might be a subject I know a little something about, though my normal preference is more Byzantine, Arabic or Slavonic and dates back to at least the 5th Century rather than the 20th. Still, give mad respect to Subliminal Sounds for digging up all these odd Christian psychedelic gems and putting them into one stunning collection.
For those with a bit more coin to spend, there is a book/magazine package that runs for around US$70, and it looks to be well worth it.
Our beloved friends at Russia’s finest indie music magazine, Meticulous Midgets, has released their annual compilation of weird experimental, lo-fi and avant-garde music.
Featured artists include Russia’s own Assembly of Honey, the Italian ambient sound sculptor Marco Lucchi and Latvia’s Шумилов Бор (Shumilov Bor) among a host of talent worldwide.
It’s hard for me to make out the influences of this album, but I can say with certainty that listening to this rather weird album was a pleasure. From noemienours’ Bandcamp site:
““The Dry Path”, noemienours’ 5th LP, developed around a Gobi Bear narrative of barren edge conditions as an access point to supra-natural realities, is definitely a turning point in the noemienours discography, notably because of its introduction of harpsichord in the noemienours instrumentarium, but also because of its recourse to a widened approach of its lo-fi musical approach, by creating a new musical form somewhere between Swedish post-black metal influences (Hypothermia, Armagedda,…) and the 17th century dislocation of musical forms through the ”Vanitas” topos as developed by Froberger or Louis Couperin, while retaining its magical Scandinavian forest hue. But of course noemienours’ musical approach to genre has never been anything else than a way of submitting apparently meaningless musical forms to the very meaning of its ursidae qualities.”
Wordy, yes, but the music is sparse and, in its own way, sublime.
Minimal synths, plinking and plonking keyboard, a gothic air, a mention of the Orthodox work The Way Of The Pilgrim, and dedicated to the memory of St. Olav the Holy Martyr-King – that was enough to perk my interest in the band Digre.
The notes on their Bandcamp site makes them sound like fascinating people doing an interesting project and will be shared on the holiest of days in the Orthodox calendar. May your day be calm and peaceful.
Sweden’s Höga Nord Rekords always produces some from psychedelic rock, but this 7-inch singe from Fontän is a kraut-y scorcher.
Fontän hail from Gothenburg, the home of the label, and they produce two solid slabs of fine psychedelic fuzz with a gently grooving drum beat, dubby bass, loads of echo and electronic effects, and some impressively clean production for the genre. The single will be out on November 26, 2021.
For the Halloween season, our friends at Reverse Alignment Records (now run by the Unexplained Sounds Group Empire) out of Sweden and Italy have released an album which has roughly the same spirit as such post-Industrial/dark ambient musicians as Lustmord or Steve Roach. Taphephobia is the brainchild of Norwegian composer Ketil Søraker, and on this album he is joined by the Iranian sound designer Behnoud, working on this album as IDFT.
The tones one this album are long, sweeping, and as bleak as black water pouring out of a nightmare. Perfect for the season.