DAVID GRANSTRÖM, Empty Room - LP

Release date - April 2th 2021
Catalogue nr. - HG2102
Format - Vinyl / digital
Hallow Ground

hallowground.bandcamp.com

Tracklist:
1) Obsidian 09:22
2) Aeon 10:56
3) Sapphire Visions 04:50
4) Occultations 10:08
5) Transience 04:45

Credits:
All tracks composed, recorded, performed and mixed by David Granström 
Mastered by Giuseppe Ielasi
Photography by Aron Mattsson
Cover design by Greenpointless

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On »Empty Room,« David Granström works with slow transformations, cyclical and isometric patterns as well as just intonation as a way to create harmonic stability, allowing his long-form pieces to develop their own unique temporal and spatial qualities. A prolific figure in Stockholm’s experimental drone scene and a collaborator of Hallow Ground label mates Maria W Horn and Mats Erlandsson, the Swedish composer navigates through moments of quietude and crushing volume on these five tracks. Sonically and atmospherically, the pieces on »Empty Room« simultaneously call to mind Fennesz’s most meditative work or the physical experience of seeing Sunn O))) live, blending guitar recordings and synthesised sounds with forceful effects similar to those of Mario Díaz de Leon’s Oneirogen project while still being as moving and delicate as Alessandro Cortini’s solo work. The album is marked by melodies and harmonies that are the product of a peculiar working process that turned the composer into an intent listener collaborating with, rather than simply using technology. 

Having been invited by the self-organising artist group The Non Existent Center for a residency to Ställbergs Gruva, a defunct iron ore mine in Sweden’s Bergslagen region, Granström took his guitar as a starting point for his compositional work that heavily relies on real-time sound synthesis. »I seldomly use the instrument as a sound source in the final compositions and rather transcribe and orchestrate the harmonic structures using sound synthesis,« he explains. »On this album however, I chose to include the actual recordings of the guitar in order to extend the spectra between non-referential synthetic sounds and embodied referential sounds.« Working with precise tunings in order to blend the timbre of the synthesis with the harmonic structures of the composition, he created composite sound objects in which the harmonic elements blend into each other. 

Through the re-amplification of synthetic musical materials from the inside of the abandoned mine, his original compositions were enriched with site-specific sound qualities before he further refined them in a singular working process. Granström works with algorithmic and generative processes, using the SuperCollider programming environment and thus blurring the lines between generative and creative forms of composition. »One of the things that I like about this way of working is that it creates a distance between myself as a composer and myself as a listener of the music that is produced entirely by the system,« he says. Granström’s technologically aided eschewing of the conventions of composing doesn’t make the end result any less personal, however. By listening again and again to the newly generated output, Granström simply took on a different role in the process of finalising the music, with the technology and the sounds becoming his co-authors. 

By creating systems that generate music, he gains a new perspective on (musical) time, says Granström. »There doesn't have to be a fixed length to the music at all,« he explains. »And by writing music with this in mind, my focus tends to shift towards writing cyclical structures that gradually change and transform over time.« Simple parts, in other words, that emerge as the five complex wholes that form »Empty Room,« a record that itself seems to take on different forms with every new listen.

DAVID GRANSTRÖM - Occultations (HG2102)

This clip contains 2 tracks from the upcoming soundtrack album from the film "Schächten". 1. "Slaughter" 2. "Hope Through Confusion". Released December 9th. 300xLP + Digital.


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Erik K Skodvin's feature-length score to Thomas Roth's thriller "Schächten" feels like the epitome of all his musical projects, conjuring a dark cinematic trip through 1960's post-WWII Vienna in a film that touches on topics such as law, justice & revenge.

Releasing a soundtrack as a stand-alone album can be challenging; and "Schächten" is by no means a typical listening experience. The record contains 24 more or less short pieces evolving through dramatic movements, underlaying menace and deep emotive scenes. One thing that stands out is the linear atmosphere throughout the story which creates a wholeness that keeps your attention to the very end. Set in wintery Austrian landscapes in dimly saturated colours, the film's dramatic events with dark political undertones feels like a perfect situation for Skodvin's atmospheric collages - perhaps sounding closer than ever to his early works as Svarte Greiner or Deaf Center. Cello, violin, piano, analogue synth and plenty of hardly recognizable instrumentation come together in a record that feels very organic in its subdued tones. The score also features percussion by Andrea Belfi as well as a Chopin piano interpretation by Kelly Wyse to the bizarrely schizophrenic piece "Judenfreund".

With the contemporary world sliding into darkness again, listening to the soundtrack feels like coming to terms with ones own anxieties - something that in the end comes through as a cleansing experience. As quoted in the film "Everyone is their own devil. And we make this world our hell".

Short synopsis : "Vienna 1960s - The young Jewish business man Victor has to witness how the prosecution of a Nazi crime against his family fails. The political and legal system is still virtually run by former Nazis with large parts of society being entangled in the past. When Victor also loses his grief ridden father and his girlfriend’s family opposes their relationship and his identity, Victor begins to loose faith in formal justice and takes matters in his own hands."

Schächten

Erik K Skodvin - Schächten (teaser)

~ IIKKI 022 ~

music : Aiko Takahashi
artwork : Edouard Elias
album : It Could Have Been A Beautiful
duration(s) : 42.15 mn (LP) / 57.13 mn (CD)
date : November 13th 2023

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Music crafted by Aiko Takahashi with laptop and various music devices, analogue and otherwise.
Recorded in North East of Italy in March 2022.

Mastered by Taylor Deupree
Artwork by Edouard Elias
Design by Sprflxgrfzm

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edition :
• vinyl: limited to 300 copies / yellow transparent LP / hand numbered  / selective UV varnish / black inner
• cd: limited to 200 CD / hand numbered / selective UV varnish
• book: limited to 500 copies / hand numbered / embossed / selective UV varnish / hand stamped

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pre-order : October 06th, 2023 / official release : November 13th, 2023

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Links :
https://iikki.bandcamp.com/
https://www.iikki-books.com/
https://www.instagram.com/iikki_laaps/

It Could Have Been A Beautiful

Aiko Takahashi - It Could Have Been A Beautiful Evening

Una Mañana Con M.

Notgoodenough & SVSH - Soundnum22

øjeRum - Everything Wounded Will Flow
release date: 15.03.2024

Everything Wounded Will Flow

øjeRum - Everything Wounded Will Flow I

KRASH GROZA  by Krushak

Every sound except for the maxi king samples comes from my mouth

Maxi King for a Day

Available through the honorable houses of HJ and HW!

DISK13

Sabla - Danzaguida

SABLA - DANZAGUIDA

This album is dedicated to Brian Young, known to many of us as Losing Today, who died earlier this year. Brian was a brilliant photographer whose work was used for many album covers. He was a real fan who supported our music, a friend to many in the scene and a lovely guy. He is already missed.

All proceeds from this album will go directly to the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline.

Special thanks to Porya Hatami for his time and the great mastering job.

Can't Wire You (In Memory of Brian Young)

upd 2apr2022 - fixed speed (it was wrong.)

MyLifeInReverse [dl available. finally. ha]

HALLOW GROUND 
is a platform for Music and Art that leads to Visions.

It was established in Lucerne/Switzerland by a group of individualists, idealists and first of all artists. We act as publishers, hosts and performers.

www.hallowground.com