Observant blog followers will know that this should be the 'eight' entry in this attempt to blog twelve days in the run-up to Christmas; regretfully I have to say that the austerity drive is now in full swing and where we should have eight we only have one review tonight.
This one is a bit of a mystery to be honest ... I can tell you absolutely nothing about the musician involved other than I believe he hails from Östersund, in Sweden. On his Last FM page there's an empty space where his biography should be, while his front page there declares "we've don't have a description for this artist yet." His MySpace page is no more revealing (though it does contain the tracks that I've received on CD) and, unless there's some biographical data supplied that I've missed somewhere, that's the sum total of the information that's in the public domain, as far as I can tell; a quick drop of the artist name in a translation engine, however, suggests that 'Tjyven' means 'Thief' and the album name translates to 'Takes Liberties'.
The music is dark, repressive and experimental - and may indeed be re-interpretations of others' compositions which perhaps might be where the artist name and album title derive from. It's unsettling stuff, like some weird exposition of subterranean experiences; hammers on anvils and other doom-laden noises that have a heightened sense of hopelessness and forebodings. I don't hear any light in these four tracks but instead I just feel and sense more blackness encroaching out of every corner, like shadows falling everywhere. So as a realisation of effect and affect it's very well composed.
That said, these four tracks are really not my thing – it's far too bleak, too depressing and too claustrophobic for my ears – but others of an ambient industrial persuasion might well find something of intrigue within.
No comments:
Post a Comment