Nexsound – experimental, ambient, noise, improv record label

Review

WIRE

Saralunden + Andrey Kiritchenko – There was no end

This collaborative project has its roots in a Swedish Institute initiative which took place in spring 2006. With the aim of promoting relations between Sweden and Ukraine, four musicians from each country were asked to work together. There’s a curious sense of dislocated tension in these songs which could be derived from their unorthodox genesis, couching Lunden’s faux naif, sing song delivery against Kiritchenko’s uneasily shifting electronic backcloth. Titles such as “Come With Me” and “Oh So Blue” are knowingly banal and the lyrics offer a similarly deadpan version of the utterly conventional. But they are transformed by the slurred handclaps, queasily manipulated vocals and restlessly uncertain tempos. The overall impression is of a compromised emotional landscape not a million miles away from Throbbing Gristle’s 20 Jazz Funk Greats, and the closing, half whispered phrase -“Tonight you gave me something / will always remember”- hangs in the mind after silence has closed over it, resonant and ambiguous.
Chris Sharp

Loop

Saralunden + Andrey Kiritchenko – There was no end

This is a new series of Nexsound that takes the name of PQP (pickup) which is dedicated to release more accessible music in the likes of experimental pop. So were released two EP’s: ‘There Was No Fun’ of the Swedish Saralunden (aka Sara Lunden) and the Ukrainian Andrey Kiritchenko, founder of the Nexsound label and a renown artist of the experimental scene in his country and abroad. In addition the ‘Dubious’ EP by Saralunden.Björkås.Mjös. This project arises in the spring of 2007 during Saralunden tour to Ukraine, after a year or so when four Ukrainian artists were invited in May of 2006 – among them Kiritchenko – to Stockholm by the Swedish Institute for an interchange with musicians of that country. There are two notables here. The first song

Vital

Saralunden + Andrey Kiritchenko – There was no end

Might of course be just me not knowing much, but the name Sara Lunden is new to me. She plays synthesizer, vocals, guitar and recorder and composes songs. How she recorded this album with Andrey Kiritchenko (objects, drums, field recordings, programming, electronics and editing) I don’t know. Did they sat together and made or did Kiritchenko add his part later? In any case, that is not of real importance, the music counts. A lot. Lunden’s voice is alike Portishead and other trip hop like artists, but the music is not like that all. Melodic and melodramatic glitch pop music. There are elements to be recognized from the abstract clicks ‘n cuts music, but the overall emphasizes lies on popmusic. Maybe the voice is a bit too much like the triphoppers of this world, but throughout I must admit I thought this was a highly enjoyable release. Careful, vulnerable popmusic with a great modern touch.
Frans de Waard

Metica

Saralunden + Andrey Kiritchenko – There was no end

När jag var en liten snorgärs närde jag några drömmar om framtida jobb. Ett av dem var att bli pilot. Otaliga var de flygplansböcker som lästes. Spitfire och Boeing, Messerschmitt och Airbus. Ett synfel satte effektivt stopp för mina fantasier. En mental så väl som fysisk närkontakt mellan tå och tröskel kan framkalla smärta. Ett annan dröm var att ratta en demoleringsmaskin (med stor, svart, fin stålkula). Riva byggnader. Mumma! Pentyl, trotyl och nitroglycerin var ord vars sprängverkan jag kunde redogöra för när som helst. Det kan låta destruktivt, att förstöra saker. Men det är det inte. Det handlar om att skapa utrymme. Tomma rena ytor. I den värld du och jag lever i, så överbelamrad med intryck, är det viktigt att skala av, plocka bort, avytra. En inre frid att kunna tänka innebär att kunna leva. Just det här ekande tomma utrymmet återfinns på Sara Lundens och Andrey Kiritchenkos ‘There was no End’. Ett tillfälle om 23 minuter att hämta andan. Viskningar utan rop i skön symbios med elektroniskt gnissel och bludder gnuggar igång en överbelamrad hjärna. Som när någon tar ett djupt andetag och flämtar till i suveräna Björk-pastischen ‘Oh so Blue’.
Skivbolaget Nexsound kallar det ‘indie-tronica’. Ack så rätt de har.
Låttips: ‘Oh so Blue’ och ‘Erotic Dreams’.
Författare: Peter Larsson

Geiger

Saralunden + Andrey Kiritchenko – There was no end

Andrey Kiritchenko er en flittig herre, der ikke alene udgiver stribevis af glimrende albums, men som også finder tid til at drive det eksperimenterende label Nexsound og dertil arrangere den elektroniske festival Detali Zvuku i Kiev. På pladefronten lod han senest høre fra sig med et album i Staalplaats Mort Aux Vaches-serie, men allerede få måneder efter er han klar med endnu en udgivelse. Ganske vist drejer det sig blot om en ep med seks numre og en spilletid på ca. 24 minutter, hvor Kiritchenko får selskab af den svenske chanteuse Sara Lunden.
There Was No End, som samarbejdet er kommet til at hedde, udsendes i serien Nexsound PQP, der skal skabe plads til mere lettilgængelig musik på det ellers avantgardistisk orienterede label. Kiritchenko goes pop? Tja, letfordøjelig popmusik kan man vel næppe kalde resultatet, men sandt er det da, at musikken har en iørefaldende kvalitet, som ligger et godt stykke fra Kiritchenkos typisk noget mere abstrakte lydflader. Her er blid kvindevokal og svale, melankolske melodier, og så handler det hele gudhjælpemig også om kærlighed, hvad der trods alt er et slags spring for en kunstner, som for nylig udsendte et album, der havde udstoppede dyr som tema. Nu er det da også Lunden, som står for sangskrivningen, ligesom hun udover at synge spiller guitar, synth og blokfløjte. Kiritchenko giver sit besyv med i form af skrøbelige elektroniske teksturer, knitrende støj og manipulerede reallyde. Hans håndelag for den slags skinner tydeligt igennem, men omvendt er det en ny situation for ham at arbejde inden for rammerne af regulære sange. Spørgsmålet er så, om det er en god idé for ham at begive sig ind på det territorium?
Jeg skal ikke lægge skjul på, at jeg ved første gennemlytning var lettere skuffet. Det ville være synd at sige, at blandingen af drømmende kvindevokal, folkorienteret indiepop og knitrende electronica er nogen nyhed, og det kræver altså noget særligt, for at min opmærksomhed kan holdes fangen. Det lød jo meget lækkert, men det virkede også, som om Kiritchenkos brillante fornemmelse for lyd var reduceret til ren baggrundsflimmer for nogle lettere anonyme melodier. Og det var jo ikke lige det, jeg havde forventet fra ham.
Efter nogle flere gennemlytninger må jeg dog erkende, at jeg har ladet mig forføre. Forførelse forekommer at være det rette ord, for selvom pladen for en umiddelbar betragtning ikke gør det store væsen af sig, så luller den alligevel stille og roligt én ind i en stemning, der først og fremmest kan beskrives som sexet.

Musique Machine

Saralunden + Andrey Kiritchenko – There was no end

It’s a small world after all, we find here a project with Swedish singer/songwriter Sara Lunden joining forces Ukranian electronic artist Andrey Kiritchenko for a 25 minute EP.
Sara’s voice in de first track Come With Me doesn’t immediately take me in, so to speak. In the following track it turns out it wasn’t so much the voice, but the melody that was somewhat problematic for me. As the EP continues things get more exciting, in melody but also in arrangement. Don’t You Remember finds Sara somewhat absentmindend it seems, droning through soaring electronics. Next we find a more traditional song, with plain guitar, electric piano, ghostly backingvocals and some seemingly random sounds scattered around. Halfway into Erotic Dreams the sound reminds me of Depeche Mode, in some peculiar way. The sixth and last track finds us floating into the sea as Tonight seems to be some odd seashanty-out-of-joint.
It turns out that this EP is much nicer than I initially thought it was going to be judging on track one. Somewhat comparable to the female singer/songwriter with electronics combination we know from Susanna & The Magical Orchestra and Niobe’s White Hats album, but very much creating their own little soundworld.
Martijn Busink

Futhernoise

Saralunden + Andrey Kiritchenko – There was no end

Tinged with a blurred, slightly out of focus quality, the collaboration between Andrey Kiritchenko and Sara Lunden inconspicuously slithers from pieces predominated by rhythms and the fragmented interplay of loops, towards others of more consensual forms, in which the emphasis on drones and textural layering results in a striking density of sound. Bridging the lacuna which separates these two realms is the voice of indie pop songstress, Mrs. Lunden, whose tangled tales of impersonal relationships forges pleasing, and sometimes striking, contrasts with the music.

There is a mottled melancholia to Don

Signal To Noise

Saralunden + Andrey Kiritchenko – There was no end

Nexsound’s Andrey Kirichenko says that his label’s POP series is dedicated to music that’s “more accessible” than he typically releases. Consider the series’ rather bloody-looking logo, take the tail from the “O” to make it an “0”, and you’ve got the skewed sense of POP found on these two releases. A musician, filmmaker, and performance artist, Sara Lunden (her name merged together for performance purposes) sings the 11 songs over these two CD EPs in a breathy, wispy delivery that brings to mind Laurie Anderson (as do the various treatments for her voice). Kirichenko is a key presence on the first of these discs. “Come With Me” contains wiry little vocal squiggles and echoes, and sounds like raindrops hitting cold metal pipes before bouncing back into the sky-“Oh So Blue” features what sound like Kirichenko’s treated field recordings of rain and birds, and perfectly evokes the grey-day mood of artist Zhuzha’s lovely gatefold. When Lunden’s delicately swooning chorus enters, it’s as if the grey sky has momentarily opened into sunny, cloudless blue. The mix on “Don’t You Remember” is more aquatic, its dancing, insect-like percussion glitches mating with shimmering keyboard textures; Lunden’s lyrics attempt to prod memory with specific physical clues. “Erotic Dreams”is colored by electric piano and negative Techno space, and the instrumental treatments on “Tonight” are Matmos-like in their implication of deep bodily functions. At 24 minutes, There Was No End feels complete in its tantalizing textures, and is a thought-provoking collaboration. Larry Nai

Luna Kafe

Saralunden + Andrey Kiritchenko – There was no end

Sara Lunden and Andrey Kiritchenko toured togehter in the Ukraine and made this remarkable little album. The results are electronica bent into beguiling and illustrious shapes.

“Oh so Blue” sees the pitter-patter of Kiritchenko’s sounds meeting Lunden’s vocals and synths. “Don’t you remember” is a tranquil walk through morning dreams. Lunden guides us through it ever so gently even while the song starts to squeak eerily. “Erotic Dreams” sees the pair carefully build a rousing but also perplexing mood. Lunden’s vocals discreetly hide amid the instrumentation, revealing less than one might assume by the title. But that’s intriguing.

This album is over in way to short a time. Its essence lingers long.

Copyright

IndiePopRock

Saralunden + Andrey Kiritchenko – There was no end

On ne leurrera pas, la collaboration entre la suédoise Sara Lunden et l’ukrainien Andrey Kiritchenko ne passionne certainement pas les foules, les deux artistes jouissant d’une notoriété qu’on qualifiera pudiquement de confidentielle. Et pourtant, on aurait tort de se priver de ce très séduisant “There Was No End”. Le contraste entre la voix grave et inquiète de Sara Lunden et les sons étranges créés par Kiritchenko nous plongent dans un univers onirique, jamais reposant, toujours légèrement dérangeant et anxiogène. Ces comptines malades ont quelque chose de la Dame du Radiateur jadis imaginée par David Lynch : ce n’est pas une mauvaise référence.

Par Tristan