In his solo project Tentakel Pontus Torstensson continues to weave together electronic influences from krautrock, techno, ambient and other genres with driving rhythms. Last year I wrote about his debut album and now he’s released the two track single “Impulse/Inversion” on the label Höga Nord Rekords. “Impulse” is an intense story with fast analogue synth figures urged on by a high-paced beat, sending me images of a hardboiled action movie in the beginning of the eighties. “Inversion”, on the other hand, is a more complex creation full of mystique with layer upon layer added until we reach a breaking point, where we are left floating over some cosmic no man’s land. Listen to the first track here:

Tentakel on Facebook – on Spotify – on Apple Music

Music for several musicians who don’t play together, but is played back simultaneously? Can that really be something interesting? Indeed, it is! Ann Rosén and Stockholm Saxophone Quartet’s album “Bredvid” evolves in a kind of playful way and can be described as a mix of alarm signals, noise, disjointed tones and pauses. It’s both meditative and disturbing at the same time and some tracks are like a story with something mysterious going on in the foreground while you can sense an ominous vibe further in the back. It’s interesting and exciting, and sometimes computer games comes to mind but also of course horror movies. But mostly it’s music which has it’s very own life.

The works is a mixture of duos (where two voices run in paralell), a quartet (in the same way) and a solo where Ann Rosén is playing on a kneecuff instrument (“Bredvid A”).
Technically it’s interesting to know that the instruments used are homebuilt synths driven by the signal from microphones placed in the saxphones.

Ann Rosén has worked many years with different kinds of sound art and music, and is maybe most known for her works with the the combination of cloth and electronics. She has written the music for the legendary Stockholm Saxophone Quartet who is also plated back on this album.

“Bredvid” on Soundcloud | Schhh (label) | Ann Rosén’s site – on Spotify – on Apple Music | Stockholm Saxophone Quartet’s site

Bredvid A

Bredvid

Stockholm Saxophone Quartet

A major drone sound opens the album ”Fallout”, immediately making me curious. The record soon becomes even more interesting with rhythmic glitches and other sounds, but Lars Bröndum’s music is in a way hard to describe or categorize. It has depth but at the same time it’s rather easy to listen to it even though it’s about drone, noise and glitch, as well as classical eam. The music also contains some elements I interpret as nods to the 60’s sound world. One can be discouraged by the length of the tracks, but there is everything to gain by getting through them, as here and there suddenly new worlds open up.

Target You

Double Helix Staircase

Lars Bröndum’s site – on Twitter – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Apple Music

Experimental 80’s music from Newcastle meets 2016 in a self-sampled material with both new and old content. The British duo Dumdum Score, Cristopher Simpson and Michael Fielding, were never quite satisfied with the outcome of their 80’s album. They sampled their own songs and reworked it to an album which breathes synth and tape loops from the 80’s as well as a complex, multilayered content that feels more 2016 than 1987, when the original was released . The atmosphere feels somewhat metallic and desolate, but is also music with a kind of black humour. There are tracks with vocals and voices, sometimes clear, sometimes quite obscure, and there are tracks based only on instrumental and other sounds.

According to Dumdum Score they have tried to create a surrealistic music with connections to various popular currents within art, and they mean that their music is a collision between the concious and the subconcious. Beside the music there are also associatied art and videos you can check out on their site and on Youtube.

Swells and flows

Heads of tulips

Dumdum Score’s site – on Twitter – on Bandcamp

Soil Collectors turn out to be a quite descriptive name of this quartet of free-thinking musicians: Hannah Tolf, Jonathan Albrektson, Isabel Sörling and Martin Öhman. They dig deep down into the musical soil of native cultures around the world. From the inuits of Greenland, Mexican indians or desert nomads they fetch rhytms, voices, myths and tones on which they build something new and unique. Rhytmic rites build up to electronic, grandiose spaces, chanting voices and shouts are mixed with melodic vocal harmonies and ambient soundscapes are coloured by ancient cultures.

It’s music that keeps moving and changing and which is totally unpredictable. I dare to say that their new album “Tah-Tay Leet’ Kah Lah” doesn’t sound like anything else. It’s a fascinating blend of world music, art and pop, which is impossible to categorize. The song here below, the beautiful and powerful “Windbird”, is based on a legend from the inuits of Greenland. It’s the song that comes closest to our expectations of a pop song, but I recommend to listen to the entire album to experience what I’ve tried to describe above.

Soil Collectors on Facebook – on Spotify – on Apple Music