Over the past year as Peder Mannerfelt has shed the skin of The Subliminal Kid, we've only had small samples to taste of his new brand of musical sorcery. Lines Describing Circles changes all of that. Ten tracks deep, this is not so much an album as it is a declaration. From the opening, harrowing crackle of "Collapsion," Mannerfelt's intent is to crush the listener into a perfect, metal cube.

Lines Describing Circles, like the EP before it, is laser-focused. It's the sound of a man fully in control of his machines. Throughout the album, though, there are respites. The title track settles into a hypnotic groove while a simple, infectious melody repeats into the darkness. This is music you'll hear at a club after the end of the world. "In Place Of Once Was" has a melody lurking, too, but it's constantly overwhelmed by sub-bass nihilism. Mannerfelt presents the small bit of light as an illusion, knowing full well that by this point we're all wrecked.

This is heavy music, but not without purpose. As sequencers compete in unison on "Alpha Waves," there's a hint at the real meaning of Lines Describing Circles. Mannerfelt is searching for truth through electronic escapism and he's willing to take down anyone in his path to do it. "Gulo Gulo Caesitas" is the pinnacle of the firestorm. Cacaphonous beats pummel into submission while feedback and seemingly endless layers of aural mayhem rain down like sonic acid rain.

As the computerized voice repeats "Barren" over and over on "Evening Redness In The West," the end becomes a myth. There is no horizon left to long for. There is no blood left to bleed. Peder Mannerfelt's transformation complete, he is off to find new trails to blaze as the melancholic pads of "Rotterdam Anagram" are obscured by distorted filth. Everyone rejoice.

Mastered and cut by Stefan Betke.

Lines Describing Circles

Collapsion

Alpha Waves

Evening Redness In The West

Gulo Gulo Caesitas

Affricate Consonants

In Place Of Once Was

Nihilst 87

Rotterdam Anagram

Derrvish

Lines Describing A Circle

Peder Mannerfelt splits the difference between playful immediacy and daring experimentation. You’re as likely to find him premiering a live show at Berlin’s Atonal festival as pulling apart fabled techno meccas from Berghain to Fabric with synapse-frying precision. One minute he’s being asked to remix Björk, and the next he’s dropping EPs of non-conformist techno for Karenn’s Voam label. 

As a prolific collaborator throughout his career, Mannerfelt has veered from the orchestral tension of Roll The Dice (with Malcolm Pardon) to the anything-goes maximalism of Aasthma (with Pär Grindvik). As a producer, he’s worked on every one of Fever Ray’s acclaimed albums and live shows, as well as projects from alt music heavyweights such as Smerz, Blonde Redhead and Glasser. His Peder Mannerfelt Produktions label has become another outlet for his singular approach, presenting his work alongside similarly experimental operators like Sissel Wincent, Machine Woman, Klara Lewis and Hodge. 

More recently, his PM+ series celebrates the immediacy of club-focused tracks, and Mannerfelt thrives on the energy and community of contemporary club music. What makes him different is his response to that energy, as he pushes the music’s possibilities in wild, unpredictable directions.

Lines Describing Circles

PederMannerfeltProduktion