ambient / drone
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Aah, a new album from Dag Rosenqvist. That's always something to look forward to. We've been listening to his work quite a lot in the past year or so and with this new album it doesn't seem like that will change soon. I'd even go as far as saying "on the contrary". 'Elephant' is a great album, ranging from modern classical music over ambient to downtempo electronics. It's also his most surprising album, one where Rosenqvist doesn't shun some harsh experiments.
Dag Rosenqvist is no stranger to this website since we've reviewed his work before. He uses a wide array of acoustic and electronic instruments to create his compositions, which results in a quite varied oeuvre. On this album Rosenqvist showly exactly how versatile his art can be, reminding me of a multitude of artists including Gas, Massive Attack, Laraaji, Olafur Arnalds and even some noise industrial acts...
The album opens with 'Born In Smoke', a gloomy piece of ambient, driving on deep, torpid beats, an array of soundscapes and vague melodies. It's here where I start noticing the post-rock influences and on the heavy 'Porcelain' they return. Somehow this track brings bands like A Swarm Of The Sun to mind, much to my delight to be honest. By the end of this song, he even goes all Haus Arafna on our asses. Not bad for an ambient album.
'Whatever It Takes To Disappear' is a beautiful hymn, opaque, mysterious and somewhat whimsical. It slowly evolves from ambient to dark folk, driving on an bassline comparable to those in drum & bass or dubstep. "How is that possible", you might ask. Well, apparently, it is and it sounds delicious. After that we get a short drone tune in 'Come Snow' before the earlier mentioned 'Porcelain' completely blows me away, again and again actually.
After the punishing noise at the end of 'Porcelain', he treats us to a nice jazzy neo-classical ambient tune which, true story, suddenly brings out the sun. All of a sudden, after a few days or grey clouds and pouring rain, the big yellow orb in the sky warms everything up. All of that because of one Dag Rosenqvist tune, stunning. The album closes with 'In All The Hours Of Every Day' which turns classical ambient into experimental ambient noise and back again.
So that leaves me with two possibilities. Either I know way too many musical genres or Dag Rosenqvist knows no boundaries. I guess it's both. I mean, I heard his work before and I know this is a very versatile artist, but I never expected so many influences in one album, each of them perfectly fitting too. Take it from me, this is a great piece of work, certainly Rosenqvist best to date, and that means a lot if you know his previous work...
Serge
Dag Rosenqvist is no stranger to this website since we've reviewed his work before. He uses a wide array of acoustic and electronic instruments to create his compositions, which results in a quite varied oeuvre. On this album Rosenqvist showly exactly how versatile his art can be, reminding me of a multitude of artists including Gas, Massive Attack, Laraaji, Olafur Arnalds and even some noise industrial acts...
The album opens with 'Born In Smoke', a gloomy piece of ambient, driving on deep, torpid beats, an array of soundscapes and vague melodies. It's here where I start noticing the post-rock influences and on the heavy 'Porcelain' they return. Somehow this track brings bands like A Swarm Of The Sun to mind, much to my delight to be honest. By the end of this song, he even goes all Haus Arafna on our asses. Not bad for an ambient album.
'Whatever It Takes To Disappear' is a beautiful hymn, opaque, mysterious and somewhat whimsical. It slowly evolves from ambient to dark folk, driving on an bassline comparable to those in drum & bass or dubstep. "How is that possible", you might ask. Well, apparently, it is and it sounds delicious. After that we get a short drone tune in 'Come Snow' before the earlier mentioned 'Porcelain' completely blows me away, again and again actually.
After the punishing noise at the end of 'Porcelain', he treats us to a nice jazzy neo-classical ambient tune which, true story, suddenly brings out the sun. All of a sudden, after a few days or grey clouds and pouring rain, the big yellow orb in the sky warms everything up. All of that because of one Dag Rosenqvist tune, stunning. The album closes with 'In All The Hours Of Every Day' which turns classical ambient into experimental ambient noise and back again.
So that leaves me with two possibilities. Either I know way too many musical genres or Dag Rosenqvist knows no boundaries. I guess it's both. I mean, I heard his work before and I know this is a very versatile artist, but I never expected so many influences in one album, each of them perfectly fitting too. Take it from me, this is a great piece of work, certainly Rosenqvist best to date, and that means a lot if you know his previous work...
Serge