Altered States Tapes – AST156
Tuesday, May 19, 2026
Monday, May 18, 2026
Klas Trollius - 2021 - Sanger Till En Manniska
Discreet Music – 04
The fourth release from Discreet Music is another seemingly out-of-nowhere debut album from an Gothenburg artist. To people in Gothenburg, Klas Trollius is probably best known as a DJ and a visual artist, but the origins of this collection of songs goes back to as far as 2010 when the very first version of the exceptional opening track 'Över Ett Fält' was recorded. On Sånger Till En Människa, Klas Trollius explores the connection between music and place, letting specific location recordings become an important part of each track. The reworked 'Över Ett Fält, a loose interpretation of John Martyns' 'Over The Hill', is a 8 minute+ epic that immediately sets the tone and mood for the rest of the album with it's acoustic guitar, hushed vocals and heavy use of field recordings. The shorter 'Koltrast' is the closest we come to a fully realized acoustic pop song, Klas himself citing Razorcuts' fantastic 'Sorry To Embarass You' and several shoegaze songs as an influence. More improvised tracks like 'Gitarr, Klockspel Och Isdemoner' and 'Isdemoner För Flöjt, Trumma Och Vind' fully lets the nature become one with the instrumentaion in the spirit of Schwarzwaldfahrt or something from the Jewelled Antler Collective. Truly bewildering organic music. The record is dedicated to the memory of his Father, King Tubby and Elsa Grave.
Friday, May 15, 2026
Thursday, May 14, 2026
Merzbow / Mats Gustafsson / Balázs Pándi, Thurston Moore - 2015 - Cuts Of Guilt, Cuts Deeper 2xCD
RareNoise Records – 052
How did renowned Japanese noisemaker Merzbow (aka Masami Akita), Swedish saxophonist Mats Gustafsson and Hungarian drummer Balazs Pandi follow up their majorly intense statement made on their tumultuous debut album, Cuts, which was released in 2013. By adding another ingredient to the volatile mix, in the person of skronking guitar hero and Sonic Youth founder Thurston Moore they’ve taken things up a notch or two on the Richter scale on their RareNoise Records follow-up recording. With Gustaffson’s roaring baritone sax blending with Moore’s shriekback guitar, Pandi’s intensely throbbing beats and Merzbow’s subversive white noise barrages, it all adds up to a sonic pummelling of epic proportions on the remarkable two CD-set, Cuts of Guilt, Cuts Deeper.
For Cuts of Guilt, Cuts Deeper, the four kindred spirits went into the studio and came up with four extended tracks. CD 1 is comprised of the 20-minute “replaced by shame, only two left” and the 18- minute “divided by steel, falling gracefully.” CD 2 contains the dynamic 21-minute jam “too late, too sharp -- it is over” and the extreme anthem “all his teeth in hand, asking her once more.” Drummer Pandi calls it ‘mystery in sound.’ As saxophonist Gustafsson said of their purely improvised session, “We had no game plan. That usually does not work so well. It all depends on the day, the energy and of course the room. And oh boy, that room was freakin’ spectacular! It actually had a skateboard ramp! It was a truly spectacular recording. It went super-fast -- just a wall of noise-poetry with layers and perspectives changing all the time. And to have Thurston Moore in the mix just added colours, layers, energies and sound. It was a very inspired sharing with the others.” Pandi provides a bit of history on the evolution of this Cuts quartet. “There is a legendary Roskilde live recording of Sonic Youth with Mats and Masami called ‘Andre Sider Af Sonic Youth’ and as a combination of that record and my longstanding duo with Masami, the idea came to try and play a quartet. Those were the days of the last couple Sonic Youth shows in South America, around 2012.
For Cuts of Guilt, Cuts Deeper, the four kindred spirits went into the studio and came up with four extended tracks. CD 1 is comprised of the 20-minute “replaced by shame, only two left” and the 18- minute “divided by steel, falling gracefully.” CD 2 contains the dynamic 21-minute jam “too late, too sharp -- it is over” and the extreme anthem “all his teeth in hand, asking her once more.” Drummer Pandi calls it ‘mystery in sound.’ As saxophonist Gustafsson said of their purely improvised session, “We had no game plan. That usually does not work so well. It all depends on the day, the energy and of course the room. And oh boy, that room was freakin’ spectacular! It actually had a skateboard ramp! It was a truly spectacular recording. It went super-fast -- just a wall of noise-poetry with layers and perspectives changing all the time. And to have Thurston Moore in the mix just added colours, layers, energies and sound. It was a very inspired sharing with the others.” Pandi provides a bit of history on the evolution of this Cuts quartet. “There is a legendary Roskilde live recording of Sonic Youth with Mats and Masami called ‘Andre Sider Af Sonic Youth’ and as a combination of that record and my longstanding duo with Masami, the idea came to try and play a quartet. Those were the days of the last couple Sonic Youth shows in South America, around 2012.
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