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