As an artist Anna-Lena mainly works with video. Here video works often rises questions about the language of the moving image, perception and representation and the relation between the observer, the media and what is projected.

Contact: annalena_jaktlund@hotmail.com

Some Video works

The Moon
2008, DVD 16:9, 3:16 min.

Is an authentic sound- and image recording from an evening when there was a full moon. But the moon doesn’t look like expected, it is moving…

Drone
2008, DVD 4:3, 4:20 min. No sound.

Four moving images show simultaneously at the screen. In every image a crystal ball rotates with varying speed and direction. The crystal balls and the two coloured backgrounds changes colour.

Touch
2008, DVD 16:9, 2:41 min.

Someone is walking and jumping over cesspools that is marked with either the letters A or K. At every cesspool you could here different types of responding sounds. The sounds are recordings and processings of trumpet, kettledrum and hand clap. (In Sweden there is a superstition that says that you mustn’t walk on a cesspool marked with a K. If you do, you must clap your back three times, to free yourself from misfortune.)

Mirror Canon
2007, DVD 4:3, 1, 53 min. No sound.

A jet of water runs with constant speed across the centre of the screen. Behind the jet different coloured sheets exchange. The jet reflects the coloured sheets.

Recent Exibitions

2009-11 Edsvik Konsthall öst; Höstsalong 2009
2009-07 Hagenfesten i Dala-Floda

Recent Videoscreenings

2009-05 Galar Kampot Gallery, St:Petersburg. Collaboration with Petr Belij and Luda Gallery.
2009-02 Maskinens Video event på Sagateatern i Umeå
2008-11 Universidad Arcis, Universidad de Chile, MAC; moderna museet i Santiago
2008-10 Moving, Clarion art film festival

Kipling’s wrong! We know for sure,
these guys have made him seem obscure!
At last, the poet in his prime,
surpassed by cruel, relentless time!

It is with great relief and considerable satisfaction that Bombax bombax has the undisguised delight presenting a music in which all conceivable oppositions are humbly and modestly reconciled! In Search of Wild Tulips is an album by japanese improvisors Tetuzi Akiyama and Toshimaru Nakamura and swedish percussionists Erik Carlsson and Henrik Olsson. Together they make music of razor-sharp cut, unaffected courage and shocking equilibrium.

Tetuzi Akiyama: Acoustic guitar
Erik Carlsson: Selected percussion
Toshimaru Nakamura: No-input mixingboard
Henrik Olsson: Drum, cymbal, five glasses and a bowl

Mixed and mastered 2009 by Toshimaru Nakamura. Artwork, Mom with a Rifle, by Anna-Lena Jaktlund. Edition of 165 handmade copies. Screen printed and assembled by Maria Hägglund.

In Search of Wild Tulips is sold out!

Tracks

1. Stockholm (13′58)
2. Göteborg (26′09)
3. Malmö (8′26)

Listen

Stockholm (excerpt)

Göteborg (excerpt)

Reviews

The Wire

Despite this music’s leisurely pace, it’s all too easy to overlook how dangerous a player Nakamura is, especially when his quiter sounds are partially obscured by other instruments, notably Erik Carlsson and Henrik Olsson’s delicate yet obtrusive pinging percussion on “In Search of Wild Tulips”, recorded during the same 2008 tour of Sweden as the first two tracks on “Semi-Impressionism”. “Tulips” is a more relaxed and unashamedly beautiful affair, but relegating it to the status of pretty wallpaper, à la David Sylvian’s “Manafon”, would be doing it a profound disservice. The interplay between the two duos is discreet, supple and extremely musical.
The Wire #312, February 2010

Dan Warburton

The Watchful Ear

In Search of Wild Tulips is the name of the last of the three recent Bombax Bombax releases, a quartet by Japan’s Toshimaru Nakamura (no-input mixing board) and Tetuzi Akiyama (acoustic guitar) alongside the Swedish Bombax regulars Erik Carlsson (selected percussion) and Henrik Olsson (drum, cymbal, fiveglasses and a bowl). The disc contains three pieces, one each recorded in three different Swedish cities as part of a tour that took place (I think) early this year. The label’s website, in their characteristically fun manner, describe the music as having a “shocking equilibrium” to it. That’s a good way to picture this music actually, as there is a sense of even, calm balance right through the three tracks. There is variety in the sounds and instrumentation used, but like different sized cogs and springs in a makeshift clockwork system the individual characters here come together with a seemingly seamless precision to make improvised music that is steadily slow but precisely defined.

There is also a prettiness to much of the album, borne out of the ringing, chiming, tinkling sounds used by the quartet, which alongside the precision does make the music feel relatively safe, unlikely to suddenly explode in any given direction, but the lack of extreme use of dynamics or surprise are made up for by the feel of craftsmanship and intricate structure found throughout the album. Right from the outset, in the first seconds of the first track, as a tiny gentle flutter of ruffled feedback from Toshi Nakamura’s no-input mixing board is followed immediately by a tiny chime of something like a bell the musician’s ability to listen carefully and respond quickly becomes apparent.

All three of the pieces here are quite charming to listen to, interesting little sculptures in sound that at worst just underline the dexterity of the musicians involved, but at best, and quite often, sound very beautiful indeed. In Search… seems to shy away from any grand statements, maintaining an unassuming character throughout, but still, if listened to carefully, paying attention to which musician makes which sound, the CD reveals a series of lively tensions that perhaps are not so obvious on a more “surface” listen. Although the album really stands as a strong example of how improvising musicians that might not know each other’s playing so much can come together and make music that really sounds perfectly in tune, it also reveals that there are two duos at the heart of the music here, as the two Japanese have played together often, as have the two Swedes. There is a gentle tension between the abstract splattered electronics of Nakamura and the more precise, cubic structures of the two percussionists, with Akiyama mostly playing alongside and through his more familiar colleague, but also in places switching into a repetitive, rhythmic mode to match the European players.

Overall, In Search of Wild Tulips makes for a lovely, relaxed listen, with a thinly veiled undercurrent of energy floating just below the surface. The sense of perfected timing and structure so common to the releases on the Bombax bombax label is present, but with enough banana skins left lying about for it to shoot off in unexpected directions every now and again. Another fine release.
http://www.thewatchfulear.com/?p=2000

Richard Pinnell

Just outside

Take the music from “Semi-Impressionism”, abstract it out a bit, add two percussionists with a tendency toward the bowed and ringing, and you have this bonbon of a release. If anything, perhaps it errs on the sweet side of things, but it’s certainly a warm bath, something neophytes to the genre could quite possibly pick up on. The closing minutes of the second track are almost radio-friendly! (well, not quite…). The label (wryly or otherwise) seems to be all about happiness and this disc is rather infused with it. Very nice, though, just this side of cloying.
olewnick.blogspot.com/2009/12/ryu-hankil-becoming-typewriter.html

Brian Olewnick

Vital Weekly

Swedish label Bombax Bombax doesn’t release a lot, usually three a year, but I am sure these three will be available before the date mentioned on the press release, December 14th 2010. These releases come in an edition of 165 copies in a nice silkscreened cover (although the small print is not always easy to read). Bombax Bombax deal with improvised music, mostly by Swedish players. The first however is by two Swedish guys, Erik Carlsson (selected percussion) and Henrik Olsson (drum, cymbal, five glasses and a bowl) along with two key players on the scene from Japan, Toshimaru Nakamura (no-input mixing board) and Tetuzi Akiyama (acoustic guitar). Their release is simply great. An excellent combination of Nakamaru’s sine wave like sounds, cracks and hiss from the mixing board with the acoustic input of the other three. Each piece is a live cut. In Malmo things sounds piercing from Nakamaru’s side, but Olsson’s wine glasses, the bow on a cymbal and Akiyama’s sparse input on the guitar make this into a true delight.
www.vitalweekly.net/706.html

Frans de Waard

Reviews in Swedish

GP

Tre nya titlar på den nystartade och musikerdrivna etiketten Bombax Bombax. Gemensamt för dessa tre skivor är dels slagverkaren Erik Carlssons medverkan – en enastående känslig och gränsutforskande musiker som kombinerar ett precisr klangspråk med en ovanlig intensitet i utrycket – dels att musiken skapar sitt allderles egna rum, mittemellan ljudkonst och freeformimprovisation.
Det gäller att spetsa öronen, för många av ljuden är små och knappt noterbara, men i det reducerade tonspråket finns någonting raffinerat, en sorts vardagens inåtvända upphöjdhet. På en av skivorna, In search of wild tulips, finns resultatet av den turné som Eric Carlsson och Henrik Olsson gjorde våren 2008 tillsammans med de japanska musikerna Tetuzi Akiyama och Toshimaru Nakamura. Titlarna anger platserna där inspelningarna är gjorda: Stockholm, Göteborg och Malmö. På ett märkligt vis blir också dessa angivelser en form av poesi.
www.gp.se

Magnus Haglund

Lira

Elektroakustiskt. Det lilla experimentbolaget Bombax Bombax verkar ha gjort det till sin tradition att årligen släppa tre skivor samtidigt. Samtliga handtryckta i en begränsad upplaga om 165 exempel vardera, och i år med – för musiktypen – minst sagt ovanliga omslag designade av Anna Lena Jaktlund. En av dessa tre skivor är Skog och Dals Skogar, berg och dalar. Gruppen består av elektroakustikensemblen Skog samt ljudkonstnären Anders Dahl – därav namnet. Med få givna mallar traskar de sig igenom dunkla, sinnrikt konstruerade ljudlandskap där begrepp som ”början” och ”slut” är av ringa betydelse. Utmärkande är de rent fantastiska kontrasterna mellan det försiktigt tassande piano- och slagverkspelet och de hotfulla oljudskaskader som kommer svepandes likt pustar av en elektrifierad orkan – ofta då man minst anar det. Om det inte hade varit för frånvaron av melodiska element så hade en jämförelse mellan detta och den australienske elektronikern Ben Frosts senaste mästerverk By the throat inte varit helt orimlig.En annan skiva i trion av Bombax-släpp från 2009 är slagverkarna Henrik Olsson och Erik Carlssons samarbete med de japanska oljudsmakarna Toshimaru Nakamura och Tetuzi Akiyama. Musikaliskt är det till större delen sinustoner i minimalistisk förpackning. Ibland avbrutna av kortare strömningar av brusande elektronik eller diskreta slagverksklanger. Nyanserna kräver nästan hörlurar för att uppskattas till fullo – som dock bör användas med viss försiktighet; plötsliga diskanttoner av denna sort kan vara minst sagt oförlåtande för icke anande öron.
www.lira.se

David Olivecrona

Bells are ringing loud and clear,
how queerly blessed they all appear!
When sounding from the air above,
instil in all an urge to love!

It is with bursting pride and humble exhilaration that Bombax bombax presents the debut album of percussion player Erik Carlsson, a wonder of urgent clarity and contemplative ecstasy! Erik Carlsson is an improvising percussionist whose blissful sounds resound throughout the world. Apart from performing solo, he is also heard with musicians and ensembles such as Martin Küchen, Axel Dörner, Skogen and Mats Gustafsson’s Swedish Azz.

Erik Carlsson: Selected percussion

Recorded, mixed and mastered by Daniel Karlsson at EMS, Stockholm 2009. Artwork, Dad in the Tree, by Anna-Lena Jaktlund. Edition of 165 handmade copies. Screen printed and assembled by Maria Hägglund.

Tracks

1. My Heart Was Screamin’ Like a Cow (12′53)
2. Vanity Captured Me Once Again (7′19)
3. We Could Die (8′45)

Listen

My Heart Was Screamin’ Like a Cow(excerpt)

We Could Die (excerpt)

Reviews

The Watchful Ear

When I was in Ireland recently I was kindly given copies of three new releases on the Swedish Bombax, Bombax label. I was handed them by the percussionist Erik Carlsson, who manages to appear on all three of them. I like this label quite a bit, and wrote about their first series of three excellent discs here. The first of the three discs I have listened to is actually a solo from Carlsson named, rather finely, Let’s Fall in Love!.

The CD, which I think is Carlsson’s first solo outing contains three tracks and clocks in at just under half an hour in length. From what I can tell it is an entirely acoustic affair, though Carlsson has used electronics in his set-up on other occasions. Solo acoustic percussion improvisation is always a difficult thing to pull off. Minimal approaches to the form tend to work well, Sean Meehan and Mark Wastell’s work springs to mind, but music involving a wider range of textures rarely sound great to my ears. There are doubtlessly many great examples I am forgetting, but right now only Le Quan Ninh’s solo work springs to mind when it comes to busier solo work.

Erik Carlsson’s music is neither busy or minimal. In fact it is very hard to categorise indeed, not really belonging to any of the supposed camps within modern improvised music, which can only be a good thing. He has a great ear for texture and the quality of sounds, and in collaborative settings I have always been very impressed with his timing. On the opening track here, ludicrously titled My Heart was Screamin’ Like a Cow he leaves very little silence, but works with a range of bowed metals and constant patterns of slowly decaying chimes to present a slow, atmospheric, and gorgeously attractive music. The track opens with a persistent, grinding note coaxed from the edge of something metal with a bow. As this cloying tone is allowed to hang in the air resonating he begins to softly strike a range of small bells and other pieces of metallic percussion so the continual tone is punctuated by this gentle steam of almost ritualistic sounding chimes. As the thirteen minute piece progresses so the bowed sounds disappear and the patterns of bells, joined by a softly struck bass drum and the odd cymbal grow outwards into a continual pattern of more brightly toned, gamelan-like half-rhythms. I can’t really think of anything else that sounds anything like this, the only thing I am vaguely reminded of is Oren Ambarchi’s solo guitar works, but the sounds here are all metallic, all percussive, there is no attempt to hide what is being played. A very beautiful, very simple track and very nicely recorded, so every dying ember of every strike is captured and allowed to dissolve slowly.

The second piece is named Vanity Captured Me Once Again, and is quite a different cup of tea. it opens with a series of quiet little shuffles and textural rubbings, recorded very close, possibly via contact mics. How these are generated is impossible to tell beyond the idea that they are tiny sounds blown up into larger events. Its like listening in on a snail making dinner. This approach to percussion is less unusual, but it is done well here, and once after a couple of listens through I managed to stop wondering how the music had been made and started listening purely to the abstract sounds it works very nicely, a carefully put together little construction rather than just a series of interesting random scribbles.

The title of the final piece really made me laugh, though I’m really not sure why. We Could Die returns us to the bowed and struck small metals, forming a colourful sandwich with a murky, crunchy filling. This final track, just under nine minutes in length uses a narrow, but much higher range of sounds. Tiny bells are struck and allowed to ring, and others are bowed, in no real discernable order, gradually increasing in speed until what we hear is a flurry of silvery tinkling and ringing. Through all of this one particularly piercing continual tone emerges, into which the other strikes fall and slowly disappear. Despite using generally fragile, high pitched sounds at relatively low volume, close listening makes this music overpowering, vibrating around the listener’s head. It certainly isn’t one for tinnitus sufferers, but it is unusual and an engaging work played with no small amount of skill. That description sums up Let’s Fall in Love! in general. Carlsson has risen high in my opinion over recent years but remains largely unsung in wider circles. Definitely one to check out, and I am looking forward to playing the other two new releases he appears on.
www.thewatchfulear.com/?p=1815

Richard Pinnell

Vital Weekly

There’s an old Kollektief album from ‘78 wherein pianist Leo Cuypers sings a delightful version of “Let’s Fall in Love!”. That’s not the case here. Bowed and struck metal on the first track, a rather imposing, even grandiose piece, very much a kind of triumphal percussive march; one can almost envisage garlands being tossed to throngs of devotees. This is followed by a scrabbling piece, okay but indistinguishable from many others; my impression derived from here and the previous release is that Carlsson’s forte is in ringing metal….which he does in spades on the closing track, striking a glockenspiel or similar object without mercy, keeping to its upper reaches. Not bad.
olewnick.blogspot.com/2009/12/ryu-hankil-becoming-typewriter.html

Brian Olewnick

Vital Weekly

Swedish label Bombax Bombax doesn’t release a lot, usually three a year, but I am sure these three will be available before the date mentioned on the press release, December 14th 2010. These releases come in an edition of 165 copies in a nice silkscreened cover (although the small print is not always easy to read). Bombax Bombax deal with improvised music, mostly by Swedish players. The one constant factor in these three new releases is the presence of Erik Carlsson and on his solo release ‘Let’s Fall In Love!’ he still gets credit for solo percussion. In his solo work he is much louder, well or so it seems, than on his other work, with other people. Things buzz, bang and crack at the beginning of this release like a good free improv noise record. But Carlsson shows his qualities as improviser. In ‘Vanity Captured Me Once Again’ he plays around with the total opposite of this: near silence, closely miked small percussive sound, whereas in ‘We Could Die’ he applies a bow to create long sustained sounds and small tinkling bell sounds. I would think that Carlsson would apply multi-track recording in his work, especially in that final piece, but who knows: this might all be just some damn fine live playing.
www.vitalweekly.net/706.html

Frans de Waard

Reviews in Swedish

Sound of music

Vad jag förstår kommer det att bli en årlig tradition att Bombax Bombax släpper tre skivor på raken. Alla med samma omslagskoncept och med musiker och gäster som på något sätt förhåller sig till den svenska improvisationsgruppen Skogen. 2008 kom de första framgångsrika trillingarna som uppmärksammats både internationellt och här hemma, bl.a. med ett Manifestpris till Anders Dahl.

En av årets skivor är en soloskiva av slagverkaren Erik Carlsson. Årets tematiska formgivning, som är utförd av Anna-Lena Jaktlund, gör mig minst sagt perplex. Istället för Elinor Ströms folkhemsnostalgiska partiturvinklar möter jag en härligt absurd bild av en man som hänger upp och ned i ett träd, tryckt i den osmakligaste av alla färger, nämligen rosa. Carlssons skiva heter Let’s Fall in Love och de tre spårens titlar kretsar alla kring någon form av pubertal trängtan. Lite misstänksamt tar jag ut CD:n och då trillar dessutom en liten ”filmis” ut, ni vet en sådan där samlarbild med idoler från sjuttiotalet. På bilden föreställer Carlsson någon som måste kallas för improvärldens tvilling till Chris Isaac. Ironin är total och på sätt och vis är jag med på att det ibland tål att göras narr av improvisationsmusikens outtalade lagar om minimalistisk och arty design. Men intrycket är aningen rådlöst.

Som tur är så följer inte innehållet samma linje, det är allt annat än glättighet och rosa moln. Skivan doftar tung mässing och harts. Dess riktiga kärleksförklaring är till klangen, resonansen och massan. Det första dronande stycket har som fond ljudet av en stor skål som sätts i vibration med hjälp av en stråke. Till denna läggs sedan klanger om vartannat, från djupa bastoner till distinkta nyanser, som likt simtag för stycket fram i en flod av klangfigurer. Det är harmoniskt, varmt, samtidigt som allt hänger på skarven, en slags bräcklighet i all sin solida grund. En omedelbar referens som poppar upp är Frank Perrys storslagna skiva Deep Peace, utgiven på David Toops bolag Quartz Publications för snart trettio år sedan (vilken för övrigt också är tryfferad med allsköns kitsch, men dock i form av ett helt ironifritt new age-svammel).

Det andra spåret bryter av helt med ett lågmält besök i de små ljudens värld. I olika tempon och styrka skrapar, rasslar och vrider Carlsson fram en perkussiv diskussion mellan trummornas grundmaterial: skinnen och metallerna. Jag tycker att det fungerar, även om stycket inte säger mig lika mycket som de övriga. Det blir en slags mullvadsskildring utan någon särskild laddning. Styrkan ligger i de kontrasterande skikten han får fram.

I det tredje spåret möter vi ännu en dimension i Carlssons slagverk: de extremt högfrekventa och visslande tonerna. Det intressanta är att tonerna når en sådan höjd att de löses upp och splittras i ett slags akustiskt duggregn. När tonerna tappar höjd låter de som flöjtljud. Resultatet är ett slags glockenspiel i gråzonen mellan nyfikenhet och tortyr, där tonerna till slut framkallar en sorts klåda på insidan av skallbenet. Det är inte framfört med någon bravur, snarare med en stilla fascination av den tunna gränsen mellan harmoni och smärta.

Let’s Fall in Love är en klart intressant skiva. Jag tittar ännu en gång på ”filmisen” och istället för Chris Isaac ser jag nu en aningen obehaglig polaroidbild av en seriemördare i tonernas rike; en man som lockar till sig klanger för att stycka dem med stråken och paketera dem i rosa cd-konvolut. Den tid på dygnet han inte sysslar med detta så hänger han upp och ned i ett träd.
www.soundofmusic.nu/recension/erik-carlssonlets-fall-love

Johan Redin

GP

Tre nya titlar på den nystartade och musikerdrivna etiketten Bombax Bombax. Gemensamt för dessa tre skivor är dels slagverkaren Erik Carlssons medverkan – en enastående känslig och gränsutforskande musiker som kombinerar ett precisr klangspråk med en ovanlig intensitet i utrycket – dels att musiken skapar sitt allderles egna rum, mittemellan ljudkonst och freeformimprovisation.
Det gäller att spetsa öronen, för många av ljuden är små och knappt noterbara, men i det reducerade tonspråket finns någonting raffinerat, en sorts vardagens inåtvända upphöjdhet. På en av skivorna, In search of wild tulips, finns resultatet av den turné som Eric Carlsson och Henrik Olsson gjorde våren 2008 tillsammans med de japanska musikerna Tetuzi Akiyama och Toshimaru Nakamura. Titlarna anger platserna där inspelningarna är gjorda: Stockholm, Göteborg och Malmö. På ett märkligt vis blir också dessa angivelser en form av poesi.
www.gp.se

Magnus Haglund

Valley low and mountain high,
under clear and open sky
paths they cross and drift apart,
unite in woods, so wild at heart!

Skog och dal is a collaboration between composer and sound artist Anders Dahl and the improvising chamber ensemble Skogen. Together they create a music where intentions and nonintentions diverge, coincide and unite in veiled transparency. The members of Skog och dal are profusely represented on the Bombax bombax label, but have also released their music on labels such as Häpna, Kning Disk and Con-V.

Erik Carlsson: Selected percussion
Anders Dahl: Electronics, pump organ, pitch pipe
Magnus Granberg: Piano, saxophone, guitar, glasses
Henrik Olsson: Bowls, cymbals, glasses, microphones, amplifier, walkie-talkies
Leo Svensson: Cello
Petter Wästberg: Electronics, various objects, electric guitar

Music composed by Magnus Granberg and Anders Dahl. Recorded by Skog och dal in Skårve Nytorp, Gröndal and Majorna during spring and summer 2009. Mixed and mastered by Anders Dahl. Artwork, Dad and his Brother, by Anna-Lena Jaktlund. Edition of 165 handmade copies. Screen printed and assembled by Maria Hägglund.

Tracks

1. Skog, berg, dal (20′02)
2. Berg, skog, dal (19′15)

Listen

Skog, berg, dal (excerpt)

Berg, skog, dal (excerpt)

Reviews

The Watchful Ear

This afternoon and evening I have been playing another of the Bombax bombax titles, a disc named Skogar, berg och dalar credited to Skog och dal, which is the Skogen quintet with Anders Dahl added to the group. I wrote about the first series of releases from the label, including the first Skogen disc here. Skog och dal are the all-Swedish group consisting of Erik Carlsson, (percussion) Anders Dahl (electronics, pump organ, pitch pipe) Magnus Granberg (piano, sax, guitar, glasses) Henrik Olsson (bowls, cymbals, glasses, microphones, amplifier, walkie-talkies) Leo Svensson (cello) and Petter Wastberg (electronics, objects, electric guitar). On this, and the previous release the group perform compositions written by Granberg, though on this release the compositional credits for the two pieces are credited to both Granberg and Dahl, though it isn’t clear if the two worked together as a pair on both tracks or if they wrote one each.

I have no information to hand about how these pieces were written and subsequently performed. i could have sent an email to the composers to try and find out, as I did for the previous review, but on this occasion I have opted not to, simply so I can experience the music without prior ideas about how it was realised or how it should sound. It could be argued that this approach will result in a less well informed review, which is probably correct, but it also results in a more enjoyable listen, and call me selfish but that’s what this blog is all about. Maybe one of the musicians can drop me a line after reading this to add anything pertinent and I’ll write a follow up piece.

As it happens I would probably would not have guessed that this was composed music. It sounds completely and thoroughly improvised. with just a few clues to its compositional origins. Right at the beginning the music jumps straight into an intricate structure with no time required for the musicians to find their feet, perhaps not typical improv, but I would have said this was the result of creative editing if I was listening to this blind. The first track is also exactly twenty minutes long, suggesting a timed structure, and all the musicians seem to move their contributions, for all of their variety through a set of structural shifts at the same time. The last Skogen disc in fact used a composition that essentially gave some structure and organisation to the musicians’ improvisations, and I suspect something similar is at work here. The music sounds very spontaneous. It is jerky and abrupt in places, quite a lot of places in fact, but it also flows nicely through these series of angular patterns and the music sounds thoroughly alive and organic.

It is actually really great work indeed. There are two pieces here, named Skog, berg, dal and Berg, skog dal repsectively, titles that suggest maybe each piece was written by separate composers, but there isn’t enough to seaparate the two tracks stylistically to be sure this is the case. The first track begins revolving around a kind of faltering clockwork styled structure with the two percussionists and Granberg’s piano at the heart, mostly softly played chimes, pings and stray Feldmanesque piano notes quite beautifully drifting around each other suggesting a regular pattern but never really finding one. Woven through this weblike structure are plucked cello notes, little bursts of dissonant electronics that change each time they appear. This collection of massed small sounds. a;; within a similar range but constantly changing and shifting make the music feel like it is played much faster than it actually is. As the piece progresses the sounds begin to slowly spread out however, each individual event allowed to expand from a brief moment into slightly longer durations. There seems to be less playing all round as well, and the music develops a warm, calm feeling, still shifting and changing but flooding outwards away from the tight activity of the opening sections. really involving, fascinating music played with no small amount of skill and resulting in a work of no small amount of beauty.

The second piece works in a similar way to how the opening track began, only at a more steady pace throughout. Sounds seem to turn and click through almost mechanical shapes, but with each note or tap or burst of white noise spaced quite perfectly from the others, and with sounds generally allowed to naturally decay. The music has a strong Feldman feel to it, that sense of repetition but not rigorous rhythm or pattern, a structure but not so strict as to make the music feel rigid. It is music that makes me feel sleepy, like Feldman’s often will, because of the languid, circular sense to the music. There is no gradual shift in dynamic of shape to this second piece, which reveals it to me to definitely be a different score, but it has a similar personality to the first piece.

I enjoyed this music a great deal. It has a character and style quite unlike anythign else I have heard recently and is in equal parts aesthetically beautiful and structurally fascinating. I have listened through several times this afternoon and evening and it doesn’t become boring, and each time through can be heard differently again. In my opinion there is still a lot of scope for exploration of the region midway between composition and improvisation and this release bears out that feeling.

Available from the Bombax bombax website, which is incidentally, one of the nicest uses of the WordPress system I have seen in a while.

Right now, inspired by this music I am now listening to Feldman’s For John Cage, Beautiful.
www.thewatchfulear.com/?p=1881

Richard Pinnell

Just outside

Consisting of Carlsson (percussion), Anders Dahl (electronics, pump organ, pitch pipe), Magnus Granberg (piano, saxophone, guitar, glasses), Henrik Olsson (bowls, cymbals, glasses, microphones, amplifier, walkie-talkie), Leo Svensson (cello) and Petter Wastberg (electronics, objects, guitar). Another solid effort, two tracks of about 20 minutes each. If I’m not entirely enthusiastic about it (as, to some extent, with the two other releases from this label), it’s just that I have a nagging sense of ease about the music, similar (to over-generalize) to the way many for4ears discs have sounded in recent years. The flow is a bit too readily channeled, perhaps. It’s a quibble–this is enjoyable work, but I get the impression these fellows can toss this off without thinking too much about it and would like to hear some tougher approaches. Or go whole hog toward the melodic.
olewnick.blogspot.com/2009/12/ryu-hankil-becoming-typewriter.html

Brian Olewnick

Vital Weekly

Swedish label Bombax Bombax doesn’t release a lot, usually three a year, but I am sure these three will be available before the date mentioned on the press release, December 14th 2010. These releases come in an edition of 165 copies in a nice silkscreened cover (although the small print is not always easy to read). Bombax Bombax deal with improvised music, mostly by Swedish players. Skog Och Dal is almost like a Swedish answer to Mimeo. It features Erik Carlsson (selected percussion), Anders Dahl (electronics, pump organ, pitch pipe), Magnus Granberg (piano, saxophone, guitar, glasses), Henrik Olsson (bowls, cymbals, glasses, microphones, amplifier, walkie-talkies), Leo Svensson (cello) and Petter Wastberg (electronics, various objects, electric guitar). Effectively its a collaboration between Anders Dahl and the improvising chamber ensemble Skogen. Highly improvised here of course too, but I must say its also a bit more regular playing that is going on here. Each of the players does whatever he (no girls here!) does, and does that well, but tension seems to be lacking in this interplay. It carries on as it is, and that’s it. Its not bad, don’t get me wrong there, but no as exciting as the previous release.
www.vitalweekly.net/706.html

Frans de Waard

Reviews in Swedish

Göteborgsposten

Rating 4 of 5
För ett år sedan släppte både den improviserade kammarensemblen Skogen och ljudtrollkarlen Anders Dahl spännande skivor på egna skivbolaget Bombax Bombax. Det aktuella samarbetet är ett musikaliskt flöde som sträcker sig från avklippt kaos till öar av tysta, skarpa detaljer. Klanger kastas ut, försiktigt, alla lyssnar, vem tar nästa steg? Det är som att stiga mitt in i ett skapande rum och ständigt förundras. Piano, cello, elektronik, glas, walkie-talkies. Bland annat. Små ljud i ett stort sammanhang. Undersökningen har bara börjat. Dörren är alltid öppen.
www.gp.se/kulturnoje/musik/1.277042-skog-och-dal

PM Jönsson

Lira

Elektroakustiskt. Det lilla experimentbolaget Bombax Bombax verkar ha gjort det till sin tradition att årligen släppa tre skivor samtidigt. Samtliga handtryckta i en begränsad upplaga om 165 exempel vardera, och i år med – för musiktypen – minst sagt ovanliga omslag designade av Anna Lena Jaktlund. En av dessa tre skivor är Skog och Dals Skogar, berg och dalar. Gruppen består av elektroakustikensemblen Skog samt ljudkonstnären Anders Dahl – därav namnet. Med få givna mallar traskar de sig igenom dunkla, sinnrikt konstruerade ljudlandskap där begrepp som ”början” och ”slut” är av ringa betydelse. Utmärkande är de rent fantastiska kontrasterna mellan det försiktigt tassande piano- och slagverkspelet och de hotfulla oljudskaskader som kommer svepandes likt pustar av en elektrifierad orkan – ofta då man minst anar det. Om det inte hade varit för frånvaron av melodiska element så hade en jämförelse mellan detta och den australienske elektronikern Ben Frosts senaste mästerverk By the throat inte varit helt orimlig.En annan skiva i trion av Bombax-släpp från 2009 är slagverkarna Henrik Olsson och Erik Carlssons samarbete med de japanska oljudsmakarna Toshimaru Nakamura och Tetuzi Akiyama. Musikaliskt är det till större delen sinustoner i minimalistisk förpackning. Ibland avbrutna av kortare strömningar av brusande elektronik eller diskreta slagverksklanger. Nyanserna kräver nästan hörlurar för att uppskattas till fullo – som dock bör användas med viss försiktighet; plötsliga diskanttoner av denna sort kan vara minst sagt oförlåtande för icke anande öron.
www.lira.se

David Olivecrona

Skog och dal is a collaboration between composer and sound artist Anders Dahl and the improvising chamber ensemble Skogen. Together they create a music where intentions and non-intentions diverge, coincide and unite in veiled transparency.

The members of Skog och dal are profusely represented on the Bombax bombax label, but have also released their music on labels such as Häpna, Kning Disk, Homefront Recordings and Con-V.

The members are also collaborating with groups and musicians such as Gul 3, The Tiny, Skogen, Tetuzi Akiyama, Toshimaru Nakamura, Mats Gustafsson and Martin Küchen.

Skog och dal are: Erik Carlsson, Anders Dahl, Magnus Granberg, Henrik Olsson, Leo Svensson, Petter Wästberg

Listen

Skog, berg, dal (excerpt)

Berg, skog, dal (excerpt)

View

Montage: Maria Hägglund. From left: Magnus Granberg & Anders Dahl. Click photo for a hi-res version.

It is with bursting pride and humble exhilaration that Bombax bombax presents the glorious percussion player Erik Carlsson!

Erik Carlsson is an improvising percussionist whose blissful sounds resound throughout the world. Apart from performing solo, he is also heard with musicians and ensembles such as Toshimaru Nakamura, Tetuzi Akiyama, Martin Küchen, Chip Shop Music, Skogen and Mats Gustafsson’s Swedish Azz.

Listen

My Heart Was Screamin’ Like a Cow(excerpt)

We Could Die (excerpt)

View

Photo: Anna-Lena Jaktlund. Click photo for a hi-res version.

It is with great relief and considerable satisfaction that Bombax bombax has the undisguised delight presenting a music in which all conceivable oppositions are humbly and modestly reconciled!

Japanese improvisors Tetuzi Akiyama and Toshimaru Nakamura and swedish percussionists Erik Carlsson and Henrik Olsson make music of razor-sharp cut, unaffected courage and shocking equilibirium.

Listen

Stockholm (excerpt)

Göteborg (excerpt)

View

Photo: Kristoffer Westin. From left: Tetuzi Akiyama, Toshimaru Nakamura, Henrik Olsson & Erik Carlsson. Click photo for a hi-res version.

Bb 004: A recording of the great quartet of Akiyama / Carlsson / Nakamura / Olsson

Bb 005: A solo album by glorious percussionist Erik Carlsson

Bb 006: Skog och dal; a collaboration by Anders Dahl and Skogen

More info coming soon with the speed of light!

September 18th (Thursday): at Nefertiti, Gothenburg. Concerts start at 20.00.

September 19th (Friday): at Fylkingen, Stockholm. Concerts start at 19.30.

Be there or be square!

When not getting together with Unforgettable H2O, the members are also performing with improvising musicians from all over the world; recent collaborators include Tetuzi Akiyama, Toshimaru Nakamura, Keith Rowe and Axel Dörner.

Erik Carlsson: percussion, electronics
Anders Dahl: resonators, electronics, computer
Matilda Nordenström: radio, prepared speaker
Henrik Olsson: drum, cymbal, objects and electronics
Petter Wästberg: contact microphones, feedback

Listen

Unforgettable H2O – Flatefjäll 1 (excerpt)

Unforgettable H2O – Flatefjäll 2 (excerpt)