KrysaliSound – ØjeRum / James Murray / Nāda Mushin. — Drifting, Almost Falling.

With the year and decade coming to an end, I rush with a flurry of blog posts. Shorter than most I normally do, there will hopefully be 22! done before the year is over , nicely tying up everything and clearing the decks before next years releases (which has already got close to double digits). […]

KrysaliSound – ØjeRum / James Murray / Nāda Mushin. — Drifting, Almost Falling.

“There Is A Flow In My Iris” in Ondarock

I riconoscimenti degli ultimi anni dell’artista danese Paw Grabowski, in particolare il recente “Nattesne”, stanno portando alla riscoperta dei suoi primi lavori, tra cui spicca la meritoria ristampa (anche in vinile) del suo esordio del 2007 “There Is A Flaw In My Iris”. Lavoro giovanile ma già maturo e consapevole, pone il musicista danese al limite del cantautorato minimale, con voce sussurrata e arpeggi di chitarra tanto flebili da sfiorare l’inconsistenza, ma allo stesso tempo portatori di un linguaggio tanto potente da affascinare musicisti di diversa estrazione, provenienti da ogni parte del mondo (solo per citarne alcuni, la Siberia di Foresteppe, il Giappone di Asuna o di Ykymr, la Germania di Jan Grünfeld, gli Stati Uniti di Peter Broderick o di Daniel K. Böhm fino all’Italia di Safir Nòu).

Lunghi bordoni di chitarra fungono da ninna nanna, con una voce tra il parlato e il sussurro, dove gli unici elementi estranei sono appena accennate sovraincisioni ambientali al servizio di questa estetica malinconica. La musica di Ojerum è fin dai suoi esordi antistorica, lontanissima dai tempi dell’ascolto compulsivo o della corsa frettolosa verso il nulla della contemporaneità. Le parole diventano incomprensibili, simili al concetto di incomunicabilità odierna già descritto magnificamente da Matt Elliott in “Drinking Songs”. Quando invece sono comprensibili, si limitano a mero sillabare infantile (“Matka”), come a sottolineare l’inutilità di nuove parole nel mare delle opinioni fallaci, tutte egualmente lontane dalla verità, tipico della nostra società.

La strada di Grabowski è ancora una volta la ricerca di se stessi nel silenzio e nella quiete. Tra gli otto brani spiccano i sette minuti di “Pristine” o gli arpeggi ripetuti di “Mist” e “Tonerum”, punti di partenza per quella che diventerà negli anni la poetica fragile e coraggiosa del progetto Ojerum.

Link

KS32 Available now

øjeRum “There Is A Flaw In My Iris” is now available in store in digital format and vinyl.

Cover 2500

Listen and buy here

The lucky collaboration with the amazing Danish artist continues and KrysaliSound is proud to end the reissue series with his very first release. 
Some artists need time and a lot of work before finding a musical path, the perfect conjunction between soul and maturity is often hard to reach. I think ojeRum was born with this special feature and this was highly perceptible listening to his debut album. All of the music we know by him is just a natural consequence of this seed of art. “There is a Flaw in my Iris” will be available in vinyl format and in a new digital mastering.

Thanks

KrysaliSound

KS29 – øjeRum “The Forest Is Sleeping Within The Trees”

The Forest Is Sleeping Within The Trees, original released by Scissor Tail Editions in 2015, is the third work of the Danish Paw Grabowski reissued by KrysaliSound with a new mastering sound.
Divided in six parts, piano and pump organ walk together in a sort of spiritual research and in a deep combination of human desolation, devotion and fragility. With his wide catalogue øjeRum confirms to be an artist with a rare sensibility. The Forest Is Sleeping Within The Trees is a stunning release for fans of William Basinski and all the minimalist genre.

Available in digital format and in KS Digifile from November 16, 2018

“He remembers….” in EtherREAL

øjeRum est avant tout graphiste, mais il compose régulièrement depuis 2013. C’est justement en décembre 2013 que le Danois composa cet album, une de ses premières productions, initialement autoproduit, puis édité en 2015 par le label Cabin Floor Esoterica, et réédité donc début 2017 par KrysaliSound. Extrêmement productif depuis 2016, on peut retrouver son travail sur des labels tels que Eilean Rec.Midira Records ou encore Fluid Audio.

He Remembers There Were Gardens est un album simple, composé d’une pièce unique de 30mn. Cette durée est un peu imposée par un film célèbre, La Jetée de Chris Marker dont cette pièce se veut une bande son alternative. On est tout de suite captivé par cette musique qui se construit par de lents accords d’orgues, à la fois doux et lumineux, se prolongeant dans une résonance cristalline. On devine assez rapidement qu’il y aura assez peu de changement durant toute la durée de cette pièce dont les nappes évoquent facilement le va et vient des vagues sur la jetée.
On est parfois surpris par quelques bruitages au second plan, comme s’il s’agissait d’une captation live, dans une église, avec parfois le craquement du bois d’un banc.

La musique se fait toutefois assez variée, changeant régulièrement de tempo, restant scotché sur une même note répétée avec régularité, puis passant à une autre qui subira plus ou moins le même traitement, fluide et glissant vers une autre tonalité. On sera séduit par quelques irrégularités, l’impression de reprises et relances, comme des hésitations, un aspect imprévisible qui donne à cette musique une certaine chaleur.
On ne peut que se laisser bercer par cet album, tant par le choix des sonorités que par le tempo, comme une respiration quand, sur la fin, le jeu boucle sur deux notes, comme s’il s’agissait d’une inspiration et expiration qui ralentiront doucement sur les dernières minutes.

Simple et beau, une musique discrète, pure ambient donc, que l’on pourrait écouter en boucle, sans se lasser.

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“Stilhedens…” in Sherwood

Lasciarsi alle spalle il boato invisibile che tutto assorbe, passeggiare seguendo solo il segnale sonoro, gli occhi chiusi e il passo via via sempre più leggero. Agganciati al segnale acustico non percepiamo più l’assillo della modernità che ci avvolge, ci spogliamo degli apparati ricettivi aggiuntivi e torniamo ad essere ascoltatori unici dell’instancabile respiro della natura che si esprime grazie alla iterazione dell’accordo, nella dolce e delicata ripetizione infinita di un arpeggio per chitarra. Un lavoro di pregiata tessitura elettro-acustica minimale, questo, che segna il ritorno in casa Krisalys del sound artist danese Paw Grabowski, delicato e silenzioso ricercatore di pace

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“Stilhedens…” in Fluid Radio

A natural oratory style. An electroacoustic guitar coda. C minor augmented, meet e flattened 5th. At least that’s how initial reaction alludes. On Danish artist Paw Grabowski’s second record for the KrysaliSound label – an unofficial paean to the world of electronicised drone guitar music – lies simplicity in wonderfully interwoven layers of melody, even pulses, mixolydian modes and nodules of noodly Earth-defying anti-war gravity.

Over the course of a grassy 30 minute patchwork of drone moss and figures in the vein of Sawako and Loren Connors, the central chords begin to overlap, break down and blend their tracks, as if part of a massive tape machine. It’s an addictive listen, smooth to the touch and evoking memories of log fires, candlelit suppers or rather in Western worlds munchies at midnight with the heating turned up.

While nothing here reinvents, the wheels are intriguingly oiled with guitar minimalism in mind. Significant effort has been made to dampen play the sonic field rather than overcompress it. This gives the music a tendency to become more than just ambience, because it’s unignorable. Then again, honeyed guitar meanderings were always welcome here…

Link

KS26 Available now

øjeRum “Stilhedens Strømmen I Fuglenes Blod ” is now available in store in digital format and handmade packaging.

Cover

Listen and buy here

For the second time in the label the Danish artist Paw Grabowski aka øjeRum presents a reissue taken from his wide catalogue.
Stilhedens Strømmen I Fuglenes Blod (published as self-release in 2015) is a brave acoustic guitar suite, delicate and magnetic, recorded in a perfect balance between ambient and folk. The result is a spiritual and meditative flow where the listener can dive and let himself be lulled by repeating melodies, evocative small variations and a great hypnotic style. A little pure diamond for the genre that KrysaliSound is proud to publish.

Krysalisound