Having trawled through a plethora of sound effects records in search of obscure and familiar animal and percussion sounds, the most recent offering from Hans Appelqvist is equal parts pop goodness and somewhat-demented sound collage. Seemingly discontent to produce an elegant series of short pop melodies, complete with the odd addition of charming vocal lines, Appelqvist has found himself in a strange new acoustic world.
It’s a world here African frogs chirps to the sounds of kitten’ crying hungrily (TiggÃ¥ngen), it’s a realm of melodic birds looped and subverted into a pop song form (Jag En Gök) and ultimately an experiential space in which folk song structures are punctuated with rudely placed animal burps and barks (Tänk Att Himlens Alla Stjärnor). Frankly it’s an all but unfamiliar sonic landscape where the rules that guide our understandings of listening are turned on their heads.
The effect of this is disturbing in ways that will surprise many listeners – just as you begin to make sense of this record it throws another curve ball, another sound that is at odds with the flow of the composed instrumentation.
The final moments of “Full The Moon’ and the completely unexpected prog-rock groove of “Talkijangnas Akt’s resolve this record in a way that suggests either it is one of the most conceptually intricate works of the year or simply an experiment in the joys of audio-juxtaposition. Whatever the case a curious record filled with wonder, both of intent and sound source.
Lawrence English
