My Russian these days is not so well anymore these, they don’t teach it anymore in our schools, so I can’t relate to the title of the cover. For some reason the titles are A1, A2, A3, B1 and B2 and with the length in mind, I expect this was originally intended as a LP release. I don’t know if this never was released, or if this is a re-issue. The Moglass are a three piece group announcing themselves as a free improv/postrock trio. The six (!, despite the five) pieces on this release are more less free improv and more post rock, or even better, drone rock. Multi-layered atmospheres of guitars and synths, which are fed through their self-built effect boxes. the whole package (cardboard) and music, reminded me a bit of Godspeed but less the drums and the drama, but it could have been one of their off-shoots for the real wicked drone heads around. And that’s not the worst thing to be compared to. (FdW)
Review
the Moglass – Kogda Vse Zveri Zhili Kak Dobrye Sosedi
For a land as huge as Russia, the amount of exceptional music that makes it half way round the world to Aquairus is proportionally very small, especially when compared to how much we get in from New Zealand and Finland. Thus, we were quite intrigued by the prospects of the Russian ensemble The Moglass who prefer to qualify their music as ‘personal folk’ — an anti-genre that is beyond the mutable definitions of post-rock, psychedelia, or space-rock. That said, The Moglass are not without precedents, as this trio (armed with guitars, bass, old Soviet synths, and tons of effects) realizes the pinnacles of Popul Vuh (particularly their Werner Herzog soundtracks) entirely through the haunted drones of guitar feedback. Periodically, they have included several radio transmissions all in Russian, so the exact meaning is unknown to us, but the urgency of some of those broadcasts speaks of traumatic events. These work very similar to Godspeed! You Black Emperor’s found sound interludes (e.g. “the car’s on fire, and there’s no driver at the wheel…”), but the mysteriousness due to the language barrier works to enhance the overall mood of the drone rather than compartmentalize it into leftist rhetoric. Although it’s a mere 30 minutes long, “Kogda Vse Zveri Zhili Kak Dobrye Sosedi” (which we learned from their website translates as When All the Animals Lived As Good Neighbours) is a remarkably strong album.
Saralunden.Björkås.Mjös – Dubious
Sara Lundén är produktiv. I samband med släppet av ‘There was No End’ – ett ‘indie-tronica-projekt’ skapat tillsammans med Andrey Kiritchenko – kommer ett annat samarbete under namnet SaraLunden.Björkås.Mjös.
‘Dubious’ är drygt femton minuter aningens svårbestämd musik. Lättjazz med electronica-anknytning och suggestiva små drag av trip hop. Närmaste referensen jag greppar efter är faktiskt ‘Svårt att säga nej’, den gamla duetten mellan Bo Kasper och Lisa Ekdahl från slutet av nittiotalet, frånsett de elektroniska inslagen: Unison sång av kvinna och man, tätt intill med luftigt komp. Inget som tippar världen över ända, men avgjort ganska trevligt.
Författare: Sara Axelsson
Saralunden.Björkås.Mjös – Dubious
Saralunden.Björkås.Mjös-Dubious
The blending of aural solicitations on Dubious are tantamount to a libidinal striptease. Kyrre Bjorkas, Sara Lunden, Andreas Mjos, and Ida Lunden play a seductive game, using an array of amorous stratagems while they chart a gradual engagement with song constructs, spanning a number of different genres. In five songs that last some fifteen minutes, Dubious is a dense quilt of sounds. Tape loops are utilized to recontextualize lazy vocals and gloopy basslines that hang in the background with raga-like intensity. Melodies crystalize for fleeting moments, then dissolve into sections of spiraling abstraction that are abrasive and spirited in equal measure. In between these poles, synthesizer and drum programming emit foreboding backdrops for Bjorkas soprano surges and swells. In the end, there is enough mingling of tender chanson with barbed blues to warrant hope for further forays into such alluring artifice. Max Schaefer
Saralunden.Björkås.Mjös – Dubious
Une fois n’est pas coutume, c’est d’Ukraine que nous provient cette musique délicieusement étrange. Le label expérimental Nexsound s’ouvre à des sonorités moins hermétiques qu’à l’accoutumée et propose, avec les cinq titres de ce EP, un quart d’heure de mélancolie décalée. Portées par la belle voix de Sara Lunden et des instrumentations cotonneuses, les mélodies proposées par le trio nous plongent dans une drôle d’ambiance ouatée : quelques minutes de bonheur pour le dimanche après-midi. A commander sur le site de Nexsound.
Par Tristan
Saralunden.Björkås.Mjös – Dubious
Dubious is the collaboration of Swedish indie-pop musician Sara Lunden and Norwegians Kyrre Björkås (of Det är jag som är döden) and Andreas Mjøs (of Jaga Jazzist). Saralunden (vocals, glass, synthesizers, piano, organ, recorder), Björkås (vocals, bass, violin, guitar, drums, synthesizers) and Mjös (vibraphone, guitar, drums, omnichord, violin, programming, production) have come up with an exciting mini album.
Dubi-dubious (as the title track opens vocally) is a nice collection of minimalist electronica pop. Low-toned and a bit introvert and cold. Yet in some way including and warm. Lundén’s semi-fragile voice is a good match with Björkås’ darker toned vocals. Lee and Nancy, or Nick and Kylie (or, rather, Polly Jean)? Well…of their genre maybe, but then… not really. Björkås has written 2 of the tracks, Lundén the last three. The quintet of songs make a nice handful, and quite an okay 16 minutes of pleasant company. I think I prefer Lundén’s songs the better. “You Can Come” and “Naked In My Bed”, but especially the most quiet track, “The Sound It Makes”. The closing “Murder” (by Björkås) is sort of a spooky murder ballad.
These 5 songs were recorded at Saralunden’s place in Stockholm during a couple of weeks back in 2004. There’s nothing wrong with spending time together for a follow up.
Copyright
Saralunden.Björkås.Mjös – Dubious
Überraschend. Eine süßliche Gesangs EP auf Nexsound. Das ist auch noch der Beginn einer neuen Reihe. Hier singen Saralunden und Kyrre Björkas zusammen zu Tracks, die sehr elegant zwischen Gitarrenfolk und digitaler Exzellenz herumschwirren, aber dabei das Popflair voll und ganz entfalten können. Definitiv eine der schönsten Duettplatten des Jahres.
Saralunden.Björkås.Mjös – Dubious
Founded in 2000 by Andrey Kiritchenko in Kharkiv/Ukraine, Nexsound is a label dedicated to unconventional sound. Their releases (they press proper CDs as well they release stuff as web label) have a characteristic experimental approach which on the pressed CD is less considered as on that format they are releasing the most “accessible” stuff. The first release of this series is a collaboration MCD which see songwriter/performer Sara Lunden composing with Kyrre Björkås (he plays with the Norwegian band Det är jag som är döden) . and Andreas Mjös (producer/musician, he plays with the Norwegian band
Saralunden.Björkås.Mjös – Dubious
Überraschend. Eine süßliche Gesangs EP auf Nexsound. Das ist auch noch der Beginn einer neuen Reihe. Hier singen Saralunden und Kyrre Björkas zusammen zu Tracks, die sehr elegant zwischen Gitarrenfolk und digitaler Exzellenz herumschwirren, aber dabei das Popflair voll und ganz entfalten können. Definitiv eine der schönsten Duettplatten des Jahres.
bleed •••••
Saralunden + Andrey Kiritchenko – There was no end
This is a new series of Nexsound that takes the name of PQP (pickup) which is dedicated to release more accessible music in the likes of experimental pop. So were released two EP’s: ‘There Was No Fun’ of the Swedish Saralunden (aka Sara Lunden) and the Ukrainian Andrey Kiritchenko, founder of the Nexsound label and a renown artist of the experimental scene in his country and abroad. In addition the ‘Dubious’ EP by Saralunden.Björkås.Mjös. This project arises in the spring of 2007 during Saralunden tour to Ukraine, after a year or so when four Ukrainian artists were invited in May of 2006 – among them Kiritchenko – to Stockholm by the Swedish Institute for an interchange with musicians of that country. There are two notables here. The first song