Swedish
label Kning Disk are renowned for their high quality special editions of works
of art jam-packed with integrity and vision. A recent release, Tingens Vilja,
further cements their position as a central space for truly unique and
beautiful expressions.
Tingens
Vilja is a nice little cardboard box containing two CDs and several printed
cards. All of it produced jointly by Alexandra E Lindh and Dan Fröberg. The
initial impression is one of meticulous diligence. Although apparently flirting
with chance and discarding apparent order and structure, there is still an
almost anal retentive vibe in the assemblage of the pieces. It’s very neatly
and well put together.
The same
goes for the very core of Tingens Vilja: the sounds. Although highly
collage-based and free-flowing inbetween styles and sounds, there is an easily
discernable supra-order involved that I guess could be termed the
"soul" or glue of the totality.
Tingens
Vilja is a beautiful work of art. That Dan Fröberg is a superb Klang Meister we
already know from earlier projects. Together with Lindh, whose piano sections
add a forceful fragility to the overall impressions, Fröberg concocts a
sensuous and seductive trip through a vast array of emotions – mostly quite dark
ones. It’s a teamwork that belongs in another, higher state of consciousness.
When I
listen though, I know approximately what to expect, and I can't imagine that's
the idea. Perhaps this kind of assembled sound art containing a collage modus
operandi has actually become a quite conservative and predictable approach? Or
perhaps I’m just jaded from having listened to too much experimental music?
There’s
a zither, there’s nature, ambient sounds, Glockenspiele, birds, loosely lo-fied
voices, atonal attempts, tonal tendernesses, hiss, noise, silence, electronic
scapes and many other things in a very poetic and intuitive assembly. Lindh’s
piano becomes a very human meme within this midst of subtle cacophony. Its
(reverbed) distance makes it sound nostalgic in a way – like listening in on
someone’s emotional past. This is intelligent structuring, like buoys in a deep
sea of fairly well-known audio art tricks. Had this been done in a less
sensitive manner, the entire project could easily have become too predictable,
like someone trying to re-invent a square wheel in order to be different from
all the other square wheel-makers (the ghosts of Subotnick, Throbbing Gristle,
et al).
The
packaging is very nice indeed, with its cards of equally nostalgic-emotional
images from someone’s past. In all, it’s a looking back (?) into a timeless
zone. One listens to the emo-ride of aural mementoes and at the same time it’s
absolutely possible to play exactly that – spontaneous Memento – with the
enclosed images. No rules, no co-players, just you and your emotional response
to the audio-visual input.
Tingens
Vilja means ”The Will of the Things”, and I can’t really tell whether this box
is a pro- or contra stance. Do things really have a will? It doesn’t matter
though. What matters is the ride through this psychic forest and the box as
such provides pretty solid boots. It’s an enjoyable trek but, as often within
forests, certain passages are eerie and haunted. Tingens Vilja is no exception.
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