Travelling in audio and art

Can we still be friends?

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 19:35:01 GMT

A month ago.

Been on a hiatus from this blog for a little while. We have moved to a new place. A lot of my past life has now been unfolded for the first time in almost eight years. Sifting through enormous stacks of cds and albums that I haven't unpacked from those boxes simply because they were stored away in three different locations in Sweden during my stay in the U.S. The most rewarding thing is to look at the cover art of some of the albums. Those Coltrane albums from the Atlantic/Impulse years still look terrific and it's fun to see how your music taste has evolved through the years, but mainly it just takes up far too much space to validate the existence of all these darn cd-boxes. If I could just bring myself to sell at least 50% of it...

Summer time is Bossa Nova time and I find myself going through each "name" from the Tropicalia movement one by one. I am currently listening to some early psyche-period Gal Costa and particularly the marvellous "Não Identificado" that Caetano Veloso wrote for her. The title of the track is one of those perfectly thoughtprovoking ones. I imagine the song being about a woman who has been left by her lover and feels that her personality has been ripped away from her. A gentle, smooth but slightly skewed tune with Costa's beautiful voice on top. Of course, it could potentially also be about the dictatorships in Brazil or Chile during the 60s and 70s as the Tropicalia movement was deeply opposed to these powers. Não Identificado. The lyrics are probably about something completely different...

I am happy to hear from Ylva that "Shanghai Shipping" will be on the new Friday Bridge album. You can hear it on this Youtube clip performed live in front of drunken students somewhere in Sweden. It gives me great pleasure to follow an artist with an impression that lasts well after the first couple of singles or the debut album. The songwriting skills are of key importance in the case of Friday Bridge and the pride in detail and vivid narrative prevails.

When Burial released their second album last year I was a bit disappointed. Expectations were mountaineous and some of my friends with supposedly exquisite musical tastes held "Untrue" in high regard. It sounded a lot like the first album, which I quite liked, but really it was just slowed down jungle music. I know, so what, but it was EXACTLY like slow jungle and Portishead. The images of a drizzly, late night London never really caught on either, so I'm really happy hearing the slightly twisted "Poison Dart" featuring Warrior Queen by the Bug. I wouldn't in any way want to compare this to Burial's more contemplative moods, but this is unusually refreshing in the dubstep genre and I hope the album is just as good.

And now props to someone I know who makes the city of Stockholm a bit more fun. Larry Farber is a very different American guy who set up an "impossible" record shop in Varberg (pop. 26000) of all places a couple of years ago. This has to qualify as one of the worst business ideas ever since the unsuspecting citizens of this sleepy little town had probably never heard or wanted the likes of Moondog, japanese pop label Trattoria or any of the acts that mr Farber insisted they should hear. Well, finally, Varberg became impossible for Larry and he decided to move to Stockholm and Grindsgatan 35 with his odd collection of...hmmm...stuff. He's already arranged concerts in the tiny store with some of the American anti-folk scene, the lovely pop band the Hepburns and more. Everything seems to be run, more or less in an idealistic way and prices are often discounted. Even though most Stockholmers just seem to stare curiously through the window as if the store was a zoo, this store owner is extremely pleasant and inviting and you can just sit down and chat for a while.

An interesting and a bit bizarre article with the intent to "save the beats" or a kind of "agenda to save electronic dance music" was featured in Pitchfork media recently. The angle is so hopelessly wrong and one wonders what the author was expecting to get in return when he sent out a questionaire to notables in a "save the whales"-style campaign. Next.

I was rather intrigued by this early 70s sleeve featuring the extremely soft ambiance of two naked male swimmers sporting long, flowing hair and porn moustaches along with dolphins. This is the kind of music you used to be quite embarrassed liking until the Internet told you that everything's valid. Batteaux fit right there with the softest of rockers like Todd Rundgren circa "Can we still be friends?" wearing hearts on sleeves and creating some sense of place in this post-everything phase of confusion.

Now

Kumi Solo put on a nice show recently. She can't keep a note and sings about toy boys and such nonsense but amidst all this typically cutesy jap pop you can find some of the most brilliant pop songs like the hypo-fuelled vodka and the dancey tadaima. Good set.

The Embassy's web site is currently graced by the work of Carl Hammoud. A strangely dry, restrained, bureaucratic functionalistic world of architecture and the people inhabiting its slightly boring confines. A workplace built on dreams and reality slipping away. A brilliant little world.

Here, but not further

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 21:21:53 GMT

Today the Jet Set Junta’s Mattias Holmberg, one half of the Friendly Noise label, posted a song by an artist completely unknown to me, which initially made me want to go out and find out more. Turns out that the artist in question, one Gary McFarland, died young. How typical. First thing that comes to mind when listening to "All my better days" is Arto Lindsay's vocals with a soft rock backdrop, but that’s just surface. References here are more personal than mere physical resemblances. McFarland delivers the lyrics with ease, restraint and a poignant sadness. There is a very unfashionable and strangely appealing sense of a person who decides to politely resign* when everybody else is pushing "forward" in life. The music billows like a breeze and ends with a break which must have been one of the last traces of McFarland’s jazz roots.

A little research leads to a movie and the usual suspects in the form of a record shop called Dusty Groove. But somehow these obsessive searches lead to clues for something I really don’t want to find. So why not stop here for once, with this one song and what it means, unfettered by the shackles of facts? Could it be better than what it is right now? Not today.

*Please do not confuse this with anything suicidal.

It seems I've found friends

Sat, 09 Feb 2008 09:37:59 GMT

This is Tim. He's my newborn son and he's wonderful.

My promise to the world:
I will not treat the baby stroller as a panzerkampfwagen on the sidewalk. As a pedestrian, you will be respected.

I'm currently enjoying so called "daddy days" away from work and quite comfortably settling in the role of a soft daddy (swedish: velourpappa, hemmapappa, toffelhjälte). It's an excellent time to read books and watch the million different facial expressions of a young child.

Currently I'm reading "Words and music - a history of pop in the shape of a city" by Paul Morley and he summarizes music listening in a nice way:

(On Alvin Lucier's "I am sitting in a room"):
It represents the side of me that loves music for the way it constantly surprises, changes what it is, moves with the times, moves through time, creates space within itself, reacts against the past and finds new ways of saying perhaps the same thing. What this 'same thing' actually is, and why the variety of this 'same thing' is constantly stimulating, makes listening to music just as challenging an idea as the making of it - and can make listening a musical act, so that the listener can, in ways, be described as a musician, participating in the making of music.

I will go on to read Ali Smith's "Girl meets boy" of which I have heard so many good things, not least for the way she treats the english language.
As for music, Harry Merry is making my day and Ariel Pink's team will design a special t-shirt for tiny Tim. Ariel wrote:

HA!
4 days old
and
already in style

i'll put my team on it right away.

Ariel Pink's Politely Declined (America's finest)

The endless and fascinating possibilities of cloning

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 18:31:52 GMT

My expectations on Michel Houellebecqs new feature film, an adaption of his novel "La possibilité d'une île", are quite high even though the book received mixed reviews upon release. Perhaps, however dystopian Houellebecq may appear, we can learn something profound about ourselves. Just doesn't happen all that often on the screen nowadays.

http://www.lapossibiliteduneile-lefilm.com/michelhouellebecq

In other news: The last issue of Swedish pop music magazine "Ondskan" ("Evil") features an interview with Swedish artist Carl Johan De Geer conducted by Alice Eggers and myself.

Carl Johan De Geer

Birdie Project

Sat, 20 Oct 2007 20:20:44 GMT

Since I moved to Stockholm, changed jobs and direction, life is much better. Ok, we have a crappy government at the moment that we need to vote out, but apart from that I really enjoy being back in this city filled with culture. My creative spirit is higher too. An immediate result of this is the Birdie Project. They're lightweight, easy to clean and hang on the wall.

Tony Wilson

Sat, 11 Aug 2007 07:16:49 GMT

So it finally happened, Tony Wilson has passed away. My initial feeling is just contempt towards the human race. We have the drugs that can treat him but it becomes a financial issue. Can someone delete the word financial from the dictionary, just for today, please.
It's a sad day and the best way to celebrate his legacy, I suppose, is to go right out there and find the emerging new art, misconstrue it, mismanage it and out comes the future.

http://klasensjo.livejournal.com/67846.html

Enter dusk

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 00:24:15 GMT

When I heard about Ingmar Bergman's death today, I was not saddened. After all, he was due. Instead, a few of his sometimes sarcastic remarks sprung to mind. He was a stubborn old goat this brilliant filmmaker and many of us love him for that reason. As an example, he refused to go to the Oscars Hooplah despite winning several awards, not interested in that kind of fame at all. And why would he be? Bergman created his own world with his own actors, many of whom stayed with him until the end.
He will be missed.

Free translation from memory:

"You are not the worst actor ever. To be the worst is to be somebody, You're the second worst."

"The most frightful ghosts do not show up at night. They appear in broad daylight."

Smart Cat

Wed, 30 May 2007 01:27:10 GMT

Swedish indie Friendly Noise, run by friends Mattias and Stefan, is currently releasing a very interesting, monthly, eclectic series of mp3s on their website. Instead of a typical label sound, which rather me to death these days, this collection of mp3s projects "an artist's singular vision" as the only common denominator. Each act presents a contribution with a little text tying the work to a significant part of their life. In fact, all of the releases are worthwhile in their own genres that these artists have created for themselves. The latest in the batch is Peter Nilsson, temporarily in exile from CDOASS, who serves up some very catchy dance music reminiscent of Tom Tom Club, Chic and more recent electropop outfits such as Daft Punk, Cut Copy and Phoenix. Somehow Peter's mix ends up even more interesting that the aforementioned references. Personally, I'm very impressed by his ability to completely transform musical identities and switch gears from his usual gig.
Sleeve design comes from Asa Samuelsson who's used pre-Factory Warholian influences to her advantage. An altogether sweet, danceable and intelligent package free of charge.

Friendly Noise monthly mp3 series

On a personal note, I haven't updated this journal in a long time and there is a reason for this. I've had both my parents pass away within six months of each other and I'm now trying to find a new way of life.

Politics of the Heart - Erik de Vahl - Oh! My Spine

Tue, 03 Apr 2007 02:50:03 GMT

Swedish artist Erik de Vahl releases his third cd by himself. 100 copies. The album, called "Oh! My Spine" expectedly leaks out to the Internet. Erik regrets he sent so many free albums to the press. All remaining copies are sold out before release date. Anyone should be able to get it on equal terms. Equality, Sharing, Democracy.
There's plenty of fantastic music for the people on this one. The disconnect between the music company commercial spectacle and any kind of forward looking music of the new millennium has never been greater.
I'm not sure why he goes out on his own with "Oh! My Spine". Has he split from Srvice? Bad blood? Who cares? "Oh! My Spine" is certainly no throwaway album. While many of his peers still pray at the altar of Fennesz and Aphex Twin, Erik's music incorporates something closer to what Hypo is doing in terms of anarchic sampling, slightly whimsical and sometimes melancholic. There's a strong psychedelic ingredient in songs like the groovy "Today has been bright" and the exotic splendour of "My Spine / Our Spine" that reminds me of vintage Olivia Tremor Control on their stellar "Dusk at Cubist Castle".
It wouldn't be completely offhand to suggest that some of "Oh! My Spine" could be seen in context of the recent Swedish election and some strong rightwing winds blowing in the country making it harder for less fortunate people to get by. I refer to the song "Kamraten Mittemot" featuring a poem by Bruno Bran. Perhaps I'm misinterpreting this part, but I feel it can be seen from this perspective. For anyone else, the album's just a great trip into the department of unadulterated pure pop sampladelica. It should be available at a P2P-service near you and I'm sure Erik won't mind.

À la manière de Borodine

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 02:07:44 GMT

While in the hustle and bustle of Tokyo, I visited Café Après-midi, a small record and lifestyle shop and café located right in the heart of the Shibuya district. It serves as an aesthetical oasis for the music traveler. In all fairness, it's a retro haven, since most of the stuff they promote stems from years long passed by. Even so, their Café Après-midi samplers display the kind of curiosity that has kept my interest in music alive. A search, high and low, for new impressions regardless of age. You will find the finest bossa nova, exotic pop and modern classic music for the connoisseur. The selections are almost too perfect, but let me remind you that this is Japan where attention to detail is key.
Some of their more recent samplers include the Classique Après-midi series. Listening to Pascal Rogè performing Maurice Ravels "À la manière de Borodine" in a pair of headphones several thousand miles from home, I felt something overwhelming, dreaming as I was.

Slagsmålsklubben recapture Berlin

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 01:04:01 GMT

Ungjävlar!
First there was Pluxus. Then came Slagsmålsklubben. They make analog synthesizers sing.
http://www.myspace.com/slagsmalsklubben
http://www.smk.just.nu/

Girl with Peaches - Valentin Serov (Tretyakov Gallery)

Mon, 12 Mar 2007 00:19:39 GMT

Tiny people singing over the rainbow

Sun, 04 Mar 2007 00:08:30 GMT

宽别了3年半后，Gutevolk(西山丰乃Hirono Nishiyama) 终于推出了她全新的full-length专辑“tiny people singing over the rainbow” (グーテフォルクと流星群) 。

portable rain - gutevolk (2007)

Candy just loves candy! This bright, sweet little girl is the leader of a group of five friends. When she's not enjoying a candy, you can find her reading a book or singing a song.
sanrio characters

werner herzog directing tiny people

recommended movie: the station agent

gutevolk spelar positivhalarpop. strange seed (mp3).

With every heartbeat

Sat, 03 Mar 2007 13:04:02 GMT

With every heartbeat - Kleerup (feat. Robyn)

Robyn started out like Britney and Justin but with an "attitude". Couldn't stand it, of course, but I was never one not to give a second chance. This track is enough.

Bangkoko - Cyndi Seui - Imaginery Faminent Faobolous

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 02:31:16 GMT

About Cyndi: "Electronic Producer and Performer from Smallroom Music Label in Bangkok, Thailand....5years of intense werk life in Advertising music production, Music album, and his very own album.....Micro Bitz Life....Overall....Cyndi Seui is an imaginery faminent expressing her music in french and Japanese"

Continental Affair video

Cyndi Seui @ myspace.com
Go to My Second Thoughts blog and click the radio blog for another fantastic Cyndi track - Tambourine Dream

Get well, Tone.

Sat, 17 Feb 2007 02:13:19 GMT

Unreliable narrator and mythmaker. Get well Tony Wilson.

Tony Wilson battling cancer
Tony Wilson interview from "Wired" Channel 4 TV (Fact 211)

Pirate Bay - A cat and mouse game

Fri, 16 Feb 2007 00:41:01 GMT

A very interesting article written by former Orange Juice drummer and current Vanity Fair scribe Steven Daly about controversial torrent tracker web site Pirate Bay. The story tells a tale with consequences that go beyond mere digital piracy and giving us a small glimpse of the foreign politics of an empire.

http://www.vanityfair.com/ontheweb/features/2007/03/piratebay200703?currentPage=1

Clip of Swedish national tv news program in conjunction with the temporary shutdown of Pirate Bay last year.

This world is not my home, just passing through

Tue, 23 Jan 2007 03:22:59 GMT

HNIA in its most recent incarnation
If they weren't all over the place at the same time all the time, I'd be praising Michigan's His Name is Alive every other month. Still, War (used to be Warn and Warren) and his revolving cast of fellow musicians continue to produce some wonderfully experimental soul music. They have several releases available as free downloads on their web site. David Bowie, named last year's "Detrola" one of last year's 10 best cds. I was a bit disappointed in that release after their wonderful "Summer Bird" EP and also knowing what they're capable of in full force. Maybe I've just set my expectations too high. Since I last visited, HNIA have added several videos to YouTube including the wonderful Brothers Quay commissions, announced a brand new album, released a free download RMX album and have a great new song on MySpace called "This world is not my home".

Download His Name is Alive - RMX for a limited time - includes some excellent remixes from Minotaur Shock, Susumo Yokota, Burnt Friedman, Hermann & Kleine, Recloose, Tony Ollivierra and Four Tet

Kindred spirits in visual imagery

Sun, 21 Jan 2007 15:00:59 GMT

Momus has allegedly written a book about photoblogging and several Click Opera entries about the trend with bloggers becoming more visual and less textual in their Internet communication.
LiveJournalist Stanley Lieber, as a standout example, has recently produced fascinating associative series of images, that seems to have replaced any need for textual narrative. How fascinating, then, when I find something I would like to describe as a complete life aesthetic in the form of images on Flickr. A wonderful example of this current phenomenon is a 40-something-year-old woman from Manchester, U.K called trevira. Although the images are wide ranging in scope, the overall impression is one that kindred spirits can relate to. Curiously, I found this excellent Flickr blog while doing research on an old Manchester fanzine called "City Fun" edited by Liz Naylor and Cath Carroll. This led to a Saturday night spent in awe of her eye-catching imagery. It's like meeting an old friend and wondering where they've been all these years. Take some time to browse through all the sets. What else have I been missing on Flickr?

Assorted images from the trevira Flickr photo blog:

Merry Christmas to my LJ friends

Mon, 25 Dec 2006 15:08:48 GMT

I know how you feel.

Ghostly International - Label of the decade

Sun, 19 Nov 2006 22:42:52 GMT

"postprior - atmospheric"

Ghostly International out of Ann Arbor, Michigan is probably my favorite record label of the new century. They started out with some uncompromising progressive electronic dance music from Matthew Dear and his even more uncompromising project Audion, as well as wonderful electro-pop unit Solvent.

Brilliant E.P. from PostPrior

Now, they've come back with their second wave. The myspace page has some great tracks from Christopher Willits (a kind of hi-nrg My Bloody Valentine), Dabrye (amazing dyslectic balkan-style dance techno), NVSO (neokraut) and PostPrior (excellent electro-soul-pop reminiscent of the mighty Junior Boys). The latter will release their first E.P. "Touched Pilot" soon. It's destined to be one of the greatest releases this year. Enjoy.

good metrotimes interview with founder sam valenti iv

Shibuya Love

Fri, 10 Nov 2006 00:22:29 GMT

Click on picture for a bigger one.
Yesterday was heavenly. We had been looking for a mixed Onsen, which is pretty rare in Tokyo. The lovely staff at our hotel/hostel Oak Hotel helped us find the perfect place. We met up with Aki and after breakfast at a cafe, we went to Toshimaen Gardens.
They have a great big Bade Zone and some gorgeous open air hot pools. There are also more traditional Onsen areas but these are not mixed. I watched carefully how the guys were soaking so I didn't screw up. The whole bathing experience is a ritual. There were only japanese there so Mimi and I drew the most attention, but as always courtesy goes a long way. As usual, a lot of bowing and "Sumimasen". One lady even came up to Mimi and told her a confidential secret.
Afterwards we had some tatami-style lunch. The hours passed by real quickly, so the Shinjuku Gyoen Garden
had already closed. Off to Shibuya for some shopping.
Shibuya has some of the most well-dressed young people in the world. I particularly liked the small shops up on the hill. They are a welcome retreat from the hustle and bustle of downtown Shibuya where it's very easy to get sensory overload. There's just so much to see. We ended the day at the Gonpachi restaurant in Shibuya, really nicely located on the 14:th floor overlooking the city.
A lot of grilled Yakitory side dishes and Soba noodles. We gave some souvenirs to Aki, who was going back to Yokohama for university lectures the next morning. Hopefully she's coming over to see us again.

Picture description
1. Compact housing in Shibuya
2. Tintin shop is a must in every city
3. Blunt advertising reads "Handmade boring table animals", another aspect of cool, but useless toys
4. Cafe Après-Midi is a stylish, retro record store and life style. Known for their excellent compilations.
5. Travel in style
6. Toshimaen Onsen relax room
7. Monochrome MonChiChi exhibition
8. A very cool, courteous school boy gave up his seat for us.
9. Toshimaen big mixed pool.
10. Nice looky, but poor sucky
11. "Have a good music with a beating heart" - Ad poetry japanese style
12. Gonpachi cooks will greet you with a holler
13. Mimi and Aki, my favorite girls at Gonpachi.
13+. Tsukiji fish market early in the morning for the tuna auction is a must. The freshest sushi you could ever get. It melts in your mouth and has that slimy layer that only the freshest fish has. Enjoy!

Cute, Cool and Useless

Fri, 10 Nov 2006 00:02:34 GMT

Shopping toy stores in Tokyo is so much fun. Actually, you don't need to go to a toy store, they are everywhere. Useless, but fun, cool and cute. Not a surprise that I would fall for the vintage furniture collection from ReacJapan. Everything is so very stylish, well sought out and aesthetically pleasing. I guess you can call it good taste. The IDog (they have a neat web presentation) is popular as well as the IFish. I ended up buying a Q Steer remote controlled car that you can drive using your cell phone. Absolutely useless, of course. Consumerist culture is something that I typically don't quite understand, but here it somehow makes sense. The shopping experience is so well researched. Products for all senses.

In Tokyo

Sun, 05 Nov 2006 12:43:29 GMT

Tokyo – the Playmobil city

Sun, 05 Nov 2006 11:27:05 GMT

Please note white gloves

We arrived yesterday. It’s now 4:53 am Tokyo time as we’re trying to quickly remove the jet-lag. The flight was soooo long.
Coming into the city with the Keisei Skyliner, I noticed the interesting architecture. Everything is very compact and unique solutions have been put in place to accommodate people and things in order to fit in very cramped spaces. I saw a carport built sideways into a house, which looked very interesting and strange.
Servicemen, whether it is a mechanic at the airport or a crossing guard at the railway, wear white gloves. I feel it gives you a special kind of respect for some of the professions you may have traditionally neglected.

Tokyo police robot

The city is made up out of several cities and wards. Traveling through the suburbs you can see how the infrastructure imitates the look of a small town in a Playmobil kind of way, so each resident can feel a sense of belonging in this vast city. There are small side streets with little boutiques and lots of people bicycling all over the place. A very proud mechanic was standing outside his car shop, which looked clean and organized. I was thinking to myself, that finally I’ve found a mechanic I can trust. There seems to be a lot of trust here.
Adding to the communal spirit is the small police substation booths in every part of the town. One police officer helped us with a very energetic spirit, lots of gesturing and total commitment. I saw another one correcting a schoolgirl’s bicycle lamp. It was indeed getting dark so the little girl, in school uniform, immediately corrected. It made me happy on the inside to see policemen who understand their true purpose. There was nothing to fear about them, they were just there to help.
The hotel was hidden in a small alley, so we asked a lady to show us. She gladly obliged and not only showed us the directions but walked with us and made sure we arrived safely at the door.
I’m trying to use the few Japanese words I know and try to bow like they do, yet I felt that I was breaking the protocol. I probably did not bow correctly or they were expecting me to screw up or that I was carelessly expecting everyone else to speak English. I need to work at it.
This morning we will meet up with Eisuke, our voluntary Japanese guide, for a walk of the historical district of Asakusa and on Thursday, Aki will help us. She said she did not have the confidence for a great tour but she was happy to meet us. I am very grateful for the various clubs and student organizations that offer these services. It makes the trip more worthwhile. Let it begin. Photos coming up later.