Playlist by Po Tidholm
Letting go of lyrics
One might wonder, listening to the songs I picked for this playlist, if I hate hearing people sing. They are all instrumental.
Maybe I do. Or at least sometimes. Voices are kind of intrusive, and they somehow always force me to make up my mind immediately. Perhaps it is the words, or the timbre, or the fact that a voice almost always gives away the genre. Songs with vocals are often finite, less open and less free.
Playlist
- Formations - Lisen Rylander Löve
- Yek – Oren Ambarchi, Johan Berthling, Andreas Werliin
- Video - Automatism
- Skördetröskan – Kungens män
- From Longitude to Lassitude – Langendorf United
A couple of the songs also echo of old German kraut rock and play with structure versus freedom in a similar way. It is improvisation within an architecture, a space rather than an emotion. Just like kraut, these songs are music to inhabit rather than consume. I am thinking primarily of “Skördetröskan” by “Kungens Män”, “Video” by Automatism (a very kraut-sounding band name by the way) and “Yek” by Ambarchi, Berthling and Werliin. They are all about repetition within a structure. There are few solos in these songs. In its essence, krautrock is more about the collective effort than the individual endeavour.
Lisen Rylander Löve plays the saxophone and since it almost has the same role as a human voice I might have reservations. But the sheer madness, energy and the strength of her playing convince me. In “Formations”, Rylander Löve combines the growling saxophone with electronics, field recordings and atmospheres. It is wildly beautiful, even when the song kind of falls apart in the end.
Lina Langendorf builds her song “From Longitude to Lassitude” in a fairly similar way, but her inspiration is completely different. Langendorf dived into the rabbit hole of Ethiopian jazz a long time ago, never to return. She has even played with the great Mulatu Astatke. Langendorf’s entire sound is modelled after the music created in the golden era of Ethiojazz, and her band accompanies her with ancient synth sounds, fiery drumming and a somewhat funky bass.
Who needs vocals when the music itself is so expressive?
Po Tidholm