Something a little different from the Swedish Lamour label, which I tend to associate more with EDM and experimental electroniv music.
It was when Ljudvägg, a purveyor of “ordinary and imaginary piano” released his album ‘Transformation’ in 2021 that he and Linnea Hall met before a live performance where they were to share the stage.
Cue reworked versions of Ljudvägg’s songs and the start of a collaboration that both challenged and elevated the musical references of both.
Linnea Hall has for many years been active in Malmö’s pop and punk indie scene while Ljudvägg has been a part of the city’s vibrant electronica arena, but then chose to delve into the possibilities of the piano.
The EP ‘Ändlöshet’(‘Endlessness’) was created under (unspecified) life-changing circumstances and explores what happens when we are faced with high pressure and stress. It asks questions about who we become in those moments and reflects on our less flattering sides.
(Incidentally, as I write this, news is coming in of the road traffic incident in Liverpool, UK where a vehicle has driven into a crowd of football fans celebrating their team’s success, injuring many and possibly having killed some. Originally suspected to be a terrorist offence it now appears that the driver is a local and may have panicked when people tried to gain access to his car. Videos show officers having to beat back members of the public who were trying to lynch the driver without knowing what had happened).
That less flattering side is highly visible there.
The EP’s lyrics are thus permeated with themes such as the ugly and the beautiful, the complexity of love and human nature, but also about the frightening changes taking place in our world.
Two of the songs are, as on the previous release ‘Formation’, originally Ljudvägg’s instrumental songs, and have now been reworked with vocals and lyrics by Hall.
Putting aside Ljudvägg’s atmospheric playing, which explodes midsection like a volcanic eruption out of what was already strident playing, and Hall’s ethereal vocal accompaniment, what really catches your attention is the production. It sounds as if it was recorded in a cathedral.
I read quite recently that scientists are racing to discover just how the universe started in the first place and what there was before it. (Why? Are they worried it might start retracting?)
When they find the answer and make the documentary this should be the music to it.
I can’t attach a ‘genre’ to it. I suppose modern classical is the nearest designation but it is something beyond that, something extraterrestrial that the little green men might bring when they finally get around to paying us a visit and introduce us to what they are listening to on the intergalactic streaming services (or the cosmic eternity party line as St Vincent memorably named the internet).
Find Ljudvägg on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ljudvagg
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ljudvagg/
We have no social media for Linnea Hall at present.
