For a while there it seemed that electroacoustic music had faded somewhat, in phase with the general availability of both hardware and software, i.e. computers and sound programs. Once upon a time it was a treat just to enjoy the weirdness of sounds produced by the gurus in their hinterland studios, but given that the opportunity to make sounds digitally is widespread these days, good old compositional thinking has gained justified recognition again, which is why – in the last few years – really high quality electroacoustics has been produced and diffused. Elektron Records – initiated by famous composer of electroacoustics; Rolf Enström – is the label of SEAMS; The Society for Electroacoustic Music in Sweden (former ICEM). This is the label’s first release.

Connecting back to the matter of compositional skill in the electroacoustic idiom, it is obvious that anything really worthwhile in this musical discipline – which some people of late thought was the ultimate free-form, available to anybody for instant artistic utilization – always has been the fruit of skilled compositional work and talent. If we glance back at earlier pieces in the vein of musique concrète and electronic music we find that those works that remain fresh and bright till this day are those that have risen out of the creative act of an artist in a thought-through composition. We might for instance dwell on Herbert Eimert’s “Epitaph für Aikichi Kuboyama” (which also revealed a political standpoint), Karlheinz Stockhausen’s “Gesang der Jünglinge” and “Kontakte” (and much much more!), Gottfried Michael Koenig’s “Funktion Rot” (with the variations “Grau”, “Violett”, “Blau” and “Indigo”), Henri Pousseur’s ”Trois visages de Liège”, Bruno Maderna’s ”Le Rire”, Pierre Henry’s ”Voile d’Orphée” and a few years later “Bernard Parmegiani’s ”La Création du Monde” and ”De natura sonorum”, as well as François Bayle’s ”Grande Polyphonie” – just skimming the surface of the wealth of classical, now historical electroacoustic compositions. Sweden has had a disproportionate part in the electroacoustic genre, especially if you allow text-sound composition under the arch of the electroacoustic definition. Sweden has harbored and nourished giants like Åke Hodell and Öyvind Fahlström, as well as pioneers like Lars-Gunnar Bodin (I remember how I heard Bodin’s “For Jon III” like a sonorous revelation out of hitherto unknown magical worlds!).
Among true masterworks with a rare radiance in the realm of Swedish electroacoustic composition I have to mention Rolf Enström’s “Final Curses”, Pär Lindgren’s “The Room” and Tommy Zwedberg’s “Bavarde”. I return to these works frequently, whenever I want to sharpen my attention to discern what is highly qualified and what is not in the batches of music that arrive at the Sonoloco reviewing desk.

The composers of the works mentioned have in common the knack of utilizing their sound tools as a means – not as an end – and they own a deep artistic ability, which reaches its expression in the composition. There are no short cuts!
However, lately a set of new, very qualified electroacoustic compositions has reached us from all ends of the world, which feels very gratifying indeed!

This new CD from Elektron Records contains both old and new in a nice mix.

“Rubber” (1996) by Palle Dahlstedt (1971) is a charming and ingenious balloon story. It is easy to extract an array of sounds out of a balloon, and Dahlstedt has achieved a funny variant. For comparison, listen to Jonty Harrison’s magnificent “Hot Air” (1995), or Swedish Renaissance man Sune Karlsson’s “Wet Balloon” (1988). Perhaps Dahlstedt doesn’t really reach that intensity, but he achieves enjoyable electroacoustics.

“Spårar” (“Traces” ) (1996) by Anders Blomqvist (1956) has been circulated on tapes off of the radio long before this issue. Blomqvist is one of the veterans (though comparably young…) of Swedish electroacoustics. This story is inspired by a text by Bengt-Emil Johnson, and constitutes a sort of runner-up to “Löpa varg” (1995) by the same composer. He joins a Swedish electroacoustic tradition; to apply small, flaky, close-up sounds, spattering forth in hasty swarms on a backdrop of a sweeping, distant wall of extended, droning events, sort of punctuating the foreground in sudden cuts. It is an effective method to achieve a stubbornly spatial experience of the musical space.

Rune Lindblad (1923 – 1991) is represented by “Optica II” (1960). It is the oldest work of the compilation. “Optica II” is one of three works that Lindblad based on studies of sound sketched on frames of film. First he used a 16-millimeter projector wherein the lens system had been modified to enable usage of the whole width of the film for sketching. Eventually he switched over to 35-millimeter film and projector. He drew with thin black enamel on the film, in the shapes of arabesques and short signs. The film was registered through a photocell unit at varying speeds, while the resulting sound was taped on reel-to-reel machines.
Since I have in my possession – transferred for me by Rune Lindblad himself shortly before his untimely death – copies of about 75% of his vast output, in its entirety kept under lock and key at the Musical Science Department of Gothenburg University, I know that there are much more interesting works hidden in the Gothenburg institution than has been hitherto released commercially. I would sincerely hope for a retrospective Rune Lindblad box to eventually rise out of these storage rooms!
It is exemplary of Elektron Records to include Rune Lindblad on this CD. Lindblad was looked upon as a rather dubious figure by the more established culture mafia back when, which makes his posthumous recovery all the more welcome. It is true that his works are distinguished by a certain roughness, lacking much of the sophistication of the works of Lindblad’s contemporaries – but when you get accustomed to the roughness, it almost feels like a liberation to dwell inside long Rune Lindblad works, which emit a luster of poetic energy seldom experienced.

Sten Hanson (1936) has been around since the start, so to say, both as a composer of electroacoustics and as a textsound author. In this work – ”Les sabouts du bouc” (1997) – he shuffles and deals. A medieval ring is inserted into the clattering and accelerating harshness, and the human voice is never distant, in an atmosphere of the happy and thirsty sittings of Rabelais, right in the dreary ravages of the Black Death, which released the lecherous lusts of Man in the Valley of the Shadow of Death.

Sten Olof Hellström (f1956) entered the electroacoustic stage as a full-fledged composer. I recall how impressed I was when I heard his first works on the radio. Here he presents his ”Prequel” (1997), which belongs in the triptych ”Sequel”, ”Prequel” and ”Equel”. In these works you find reverences to Denis Smalley and Jonty Harrison, and you will recognize fine influences from the French musique concrète school, skillfully administered by Hellström. Here alien layers of sound out of different sonorous worlds converge in a mix, which probably is the most enjoyable on the CD. It’s a true adventure to join Hellström for a ride through his world of electroacoustics. He’s generous with his electronic gunpowder, but he never lets go off the compositional structure, running through the musical construction like the girders of the Eiffel Tower, and he is in full control. This is a very good example of genuine, consummate electroacoustics!

Lidia Zielinska’s ”Schon wieder diese weissen Mäuse” (1996) is a child of the same thought as Hellström’s ”Prequel”, but depicted in a sparser phenomenology, on a string of beads of clearly distinguishable moments; gleaming pearls on black velvet. Close your eyes and listen. Very beautiful (and I choose to forget all about those little rodents…)

Patrik Thorell (f1963) was introduced to the world of electroacoustics through works by Åke Hodell and Rune Lindblad. His “Ma” (1996) consists of a poem written and recited by Kyung Hye Lee, electronically permuted in a kind of counterpoint with the electronic sounds. I detect a clear lineage back to ”Aikichi Kuboyama” by Herbert Eimert from 1962 and Pierre Henry’s ”Voile d’Orphée” from 1953, so in this relatively young composer there is a connection back to the classical electronic works. I personally harbor a certain faiblesse for this type of electroacoustics, and lift my hat for Patrik Thorell!