Stockholm New Music 2008

Joachim Nordwall (S)

The curator of The Drone People project. Running the iDEAL Organisation (a record label, festival and event organizer) in Gothenburg, Sweden since 1998. Member of ritual rock/drone group The Skull Defekts since 2005, filth noise/metal group Satan Power (with John Olson, Lasse Marhaug and Edwin Pouncey) and analogue drone duo Alvars Orkester since 1988, composing something they call Psychic Broadcasting. Also active composing solo works and collaborating with artists like Leif Elggren, Mark Wastell, BJNilsen, Frans de Waard and most recently Lary 7. Nordwall's work contains a static intensity.

Relevant links

• iDEAL Recordings »
• The Skull DFX @ MySpace »
• The iDEALIST @ MySpace »

Recommended listening

• The Idealist - I Am The Fire CD (Nosordo 2006)
• The Skull Defekts - The Black Hand LP (Riot Season 2007)
• The Skull Defekts - Rotating Feedback & Save The Skulls CD (iDEAL 2005)
• Alvars Orkester - Interference CD (Ash International 2006)

Mika Vainio (SF)

One of today's most important electronic music composers is no doubt Mika Vainio, currently based in Berlin. He's one half of the legendary minimal electronic duo Pan Sonic (with their roots in the early 90's rave scene) together with Ilpo Väisänen. Vainio has also a background as a drummer and as a part of the early Finnish industrial and noise scene. His solo works, under his own name and under aliases like Ø, are known for their analogue warmth and electronic harshness - may it be abstract drone works or minimal avant techno. He has a rare ability to create unknown soundworlds. Mika Vainio's work are on labels like Touch, Wavetrap and Sähkö and he has been seen working with Alan Vega of Suicide and Chicks on Speed.

Relevant links

• Mika Vainio »
• Touch »
• Blast First »

Recommended listening

• Pan Sonic - Katodivaihe/Cathodephase CD (Blast First Petite 2007)
• Pan Sonic - Kesto (234:48:4) 4xCD (Blast First 2004)
• Mika Vainio - Revitty CD (Wavetrap 2007)
• Ø - Kantamoinen CD (Sähkö Recordings 2005)

Hildur Ingveldardóttir Gudnadóttir (IS)

Being a classically trained cellist and multi instrumentalist, Berlin-based Hildur Gudnadóttir has very little limit to her music. Her touch to the drone is sensitive, yet harsh and intense. She is an important part of the Icelandic contemporary music scene and has collaborated and played with such varied range of artists as Skúli Sverrisson, Pan Sonic, Jóhann Jóhannsson, múm, Schneider TM, Angel, BJNilsen, Stilluppsteypa, and to be noted Throbbing Gristle and as a member of the dirty Balkan and Bulgarian folk music band Nix Noltes. She has also written music for film, dance and theatre. Gudnadóttir is no doubt someone responsible for the progression of the genre.

Relevant links

• Hildurness »
• Hildurness @ MySpace »

Recommended listening

• Lost In Hildrness - Mount A CD (12 Tonar 2006)
• Angel + Hildur Gudnadóttir - In Transmediale CD (Oral 2006)
• H.I.G., BJNilsen and Stillupsteypa - Second Childhood CD (Quecksilber 2007)

C. Spencer Yeh (USA)

C.Spencer Yeh, also known as Burning Star Core, born in Taiwan but operating from his base in Cincinatti. Cascades of releases, one rougher than the other, have been unleashed for over a decade. His music has been drifting more and more from filth noise towards a minimal drone noise type of thing based on voice and violin drawing the listeners thoughts to LaMonte Young and Tony Conrad who he recently collaborated with. He is constantly touring and is today no doubt one of the main characters of the Us experimental music scene, and he has collaborated with such people as John Wiese, Yellow Swans, Aaron Dilloway, John Olson and Comets on Fire! Mr Yeh is doing killer stuff.

Relevant links

• Burning Star Core »
• C. Spencer Yeh @ MySpace »

Recommended listening

• C.Spencer Yeh - Solo Violin 1-10 LP (Tone Filth 2007)
• Burning Star Core - Blood Lightning 2007 CD (No Fun Prod 2007)
• Aaron Dilloway & C.Spencer Yeh - The Squid LP (Hanson Records 2007)

Carl Michael von Hausswolff (S)

Stockholm-based CM von Hausswolff is a sound- and visual artist aswell as a well-known curator. In the 80's he was part of the ground breaking society and record label Radium 226.5 in Gothenburg, Sweden and was a member of Phauss - a group that travelled, documented and released killer recordings on labels like Silent, Anckarström and his own Radium. Hausswolff is one of two monarchs' of Elgaland-Vargaland (the other is king Leif Elggren), which consist of all areas of no-man's land, territories between national boundaries on both land and sea, digital and mental spaces, they also rule the kingdom of the dead since 2007. This nation has its own national anthem, flag, coat of arms, currency, citizens and ministers. He is also master of the EVP phenomena and the work of Friedrich Jürgenson, a man who recorded the voices of the dead, at first by mistake. Hausswolff's work is static, electric and often built upon frequencies.

Relevant links

• Elgaland-Vargaland »
• C. M. von Hausswolff »
• Two Films »

Recommended listening

• CM von Hausswolff - Leech CD (raster-noton 2006)
• CM von Hausswolff - Operations Of Spirit Communication LP (Die Stadt 2000)
• CM von Hausswolff - Maggots/Maskar CD (Laton 2006)

Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words

Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words is the specter that haunts Thomas Ekelund. But it is a ghost by which Ekelund performs sonic exorcism, unleashing his bleak and twisted vision into the material world. Culling found sounds from his habitat, twisting in inspiration from 60's girl groups, shoegazer pop and black metal, and molding it together with the last grasps of vinyl noise, Dead Letters Spell Out Dead Words gives birth to what has sometimes been dubbed concrete drone pop. Ekelund (b. 1977) is a graphic designer, musician and visual artisted, living in Gothenburg. He has released music under a long line of guises both solo and in constellations such as Dead Violets, Teeth, Normal Music and Dub Industrial Sound System.

Relevant links

• Official site »
• When Skies Are Grey »

Recommended listening

• Dead Letters - Fall, Fall, Falling CD (Kalligrammofon 2007)
• Dead Letters - Old Ghosts, New Ghosts, All Ghosts CD (iDEAL Recordings 2006)
• Teeth - Sick Sick Sick CS (When Skies Are Grey 2007)

BJNilsen (S)

Benny J Nilsen, working and living in Berlin, has a background in the Swedish dark ambient and industrial noise scene as Morthound on the infamous Cold Meat Industry label. Going from that to Hazard where he did deep listening & minimal ambient, often based on field recordings, for London's Ash International and Touch labels. Nowadays, Nilsen is recording and performing under his own name and his drone is concentrated, focused and beautifully disturbing. As part of Touch's Spire project, Nilsen is seen with Fennesz, Philip Jeck and others performing material based upon organ sound and he is collaborating with ex-Cabaret Voltaire member Chris Watson on field recording projects. He is also working with Icelandic techno absurdists Stilluppsteypa and US percussion magician Z'ev. He is also member of industrial dub duo Death Dub. Note: the Hazard albums are out-of-print but some parts are available for free download from his website.

Relevant links

• BJNilsen »
• Touch »

Recommended listening

• BJNilsen & Z'ev - 22' 22" CD (iDEAL 2007)
• BJNilsen - The Short Night CD (Touch 2007)
• Chris Watson_BJNilsen - Storm CD (Touch 2005)

Henrik Rylander (S)

Henrik Rylander is a Gothenburg-based sound and visual artist working in the fields of noise, intense avant garde rock and photography. He was the drummer of the infamous and retarded garage rock band Union Carbide Productions and is currently in the primal rock band The Skull Defekts. His photography is clinical and documentative, and as clinical is his feedback solo works - as heard on the »Traditional Arrangements of Feedback« album for iDEAL. He recently released his first book »Public Loudspeakers Information & Disinformation« for Kning Disk, a very strong work on governmental power and control in societies.

Relevant links

• Henrik Rylander »

Recommended listening

• Henrik Rylander - Formation CD (Firework Edition 2003)
• Henrik Rylander & Leif Elggren - Gottesdienst CD (iDEAL 2006)
• The Skull Defekts - The Black Hand LP (Riot Season 2007)

Jacob Kirkegaard (DK)

Jacob Kirkegaard is a sound artist with an interest in the scientific and aesthetic aspects of resonance, time and hearing. His performances, audio/visual installations and compositions deal with acoustic spaces and phenomena that usually remain inaccessible to sense perception. With the help of unorthodox recording tools such as accelerometers, hydrophones or home-built electromagnetic receivers, Kirkegaard manages to capture and explore »secret sounds« - distortions, interferences, vibrations, ambiences - from within a variety of environments: volcanic earth, a nuclear power plant, an empty room, a TV tower, crystals, ice... and the human inner ear itself.

Relevant links

• Fonik »

Recommended listening

• Philip Jeck & Jacob Kirkegaard - Soaked CD (Touch 2002)
• Jacob Kirkegaard - Eldfjall CD (Touch 2005)
• Jacob Kirkegaard - 4 Rooms CD (Touch 2006)

Jean-Louis Huhta (S)

A true legend in the Swedish underground music scene - Jean-Louis Huhta! His actions in bands like sludge-punks Anti-Cimex, post punk industrialists Cortex, avant techno outfit Lucky People Center and party funk animals Stonefunkers are noted. He has also been DJing techno for lifetimes. Nowadays, Huhta is member of The Skull Defekts, compising music for dance and theatre and active recording his own solo works - something that the world has seen very little of so far. He has a warmth and harshess to his sound that we all should envy.

Relevant links

• Jean-Louis Huhta »

Recommended listening

• Ocsid (w/ CM von Hausswolff & Graham Lewis) - Opening Sweep CD (Ash International 2001)
• Jean-Louis Huhta - Somewhere Between the World and Death CD (Slottet 2006)
• The Skull Defekts - Blood Spirits And Drums Are Singing CD (Conspiracy 2007)

Hild Sofie Tafjord (NO)

"Hild Sofie Tafjord has been known to the public for over a decade as part of projects like SPUNK, Fe-Mail (her duo with Maja Ratkje), Agrare (Fe-Mail with dancer Lotta Melin), Trinacria (Fe-Mail with black metallers Enslaved) and collaborations with Birchville Cat Motel, Wolf Eyes, Matmos, Ikue Mori, Otomo Yoshihide, Carlos Giffoni, Zeena Parkins, Fred Frith and countless others. She has released albums on labels like Asphodel, Rune Grammofon, ECM and Gameboy Records. Her main instrument is the horn, but other acoustic instruments as well as metal objects and noise electronics has always been an intregral part of her pallet. Hild Sofie Tafjord is, quite simply, an amazing performer, composer and improvisor with a broad musical range." - Lasse Marhaug.

Relevant links

• Pica Disk »

Recommended listening

• Fe-Mail - Syklubb Fra Hælvete CD (Important Records 2004)
• Fe-Mail & Carlos Giffoni Northern Stains CD (Important Records 2006)
• Hild Sofie Tafjord - Kama CD (Pica Disk 2007)