The Sound Projector

Salute the oncoming winter solstice with Menace Ruine, that’s my advice…the latest release from this Canadian black metal project is The Die Is Cast (ALIEN8 ALIENCD82), a fatalistic title for a CD decorated with sombre, candle-blackened religious icons from the orthodox church and suggesting that mankind’s destiny is a nightmarish combination of many-headed monsters, headless figures running about aimlessly, and a coldly indifferent angel of salvation hovering over a sickly extinguished sun. The music seems to combine the vocalists’ warped attempts at polyphonic choir singing with the most monumentally huge guitar riffs you could wish for; as if Hildegard of Bingen were recruited, by time machine, to join Black Sabbath. A mesmerising feast of dark metal noise which, like the best moments of Deathspell Omega, is laced with intense bursts of spiritual visions.

Further unhinged guitar sludge from American duo Korperschwache, with Eight Velvet Paintings for Helen Keller (INAM RECORDS 24). Unlike their Canadian brethren, the Korpsters see no salvation for mankind whatsoever, but tend to regard the entire globe of human affairs as a circus of absurd madness. This sneering view is somewhat confirmed by the old engravings on the cover which depict all manner of mad atrocities and follies in symbol-laden morality tales. This prolific Texan duo go for lengthy tracks of guitar and drum excess, rendering everything as heavy and leaden as possible, then undercut their own seriousness with bizarre titles like ‘Taking metaphysics for a test drive’. 100 copies only of this grim snarler.

Darsombra, while still not averse to dabbling in the darker edges of the psychological brew in his seething noggin, has a sophisticated edge to his noise and tape-loop experiments which I always find engaging. He also keeps changing tack to outsmart any followers, and this new release Nymphaea (PUBLIC GUILT PGL 009) is an interesting departure of sorts – I would normally avoid a remix project with all possible dispatch, but here these 13 different versions (apparently) of the same song by Darsombra are given utterly radical remakes by guest stars Pulsoc, Guilty Connector, Ala Muerte, Perfect Teeth, Blood Fountains and several more creators. Some add beats, some select a small mid-section of the song, all of them create something new. The essentially hypnotic trancey core of the song is repeated and driven home with a multiplication factor of 13, resulting in an intense listen. The project was carefully planned and co-ordinated with the help of label boss, J.R. A fine release.

Muarena Helena appear to be a six piece of English avant-rockers, achieving in their ranks a balance of gender (half male, half female) which even The Au Pairs couldn’t manage in 1981, for all their NME-friendly talk of advancing the causes of sexual politics through post-punk music. On Fierce Pale Hen (ROCK PIGEON RECORDS NO NUMBER), the combo turn in a collection of crisp guitar and piano instrumentals, and some songs, with a tremendous amount of variety and sonic environments explored through the album (this may be because it was recorded in four different studios / locations). While their attempts at romantic ballads are a little thin, I like the angular and shady instrumentals; there’s at least one guitarist here who knows instinctively when to keep things simple, working a two-note riff for all its worth. And the song title ‘We’ll think of Yetis’ is a nice update on Roky Erickson’s ‘I Think of Demons’.

Lastly, here’s Carlos Giffoni with a solo record Adult Life (NO FUN PRODUCTIONS NFP-40). This is excellent, a perfectly intense set of experiments with monotonous, smothering electronic sound perhaps made with old analogue synths. A rich yet abrasive sound results, partly thanks to help from studio wiz James Plotkin who did the mastering. These five relentless pieces will pull you unwillingly into a mental arena where you have little choice but to contemplate the same imponderables that are currently preoccupying Giffoni’s mind – ‘Comfort and Pleasure’, ‘A son with no father’, ‘A permanent choice’ and ‘The Endless Mirror’. Clearly, Giffoni finds that man’s adult life is fraught with impossible dilemmas, many of which are a matter of life and death. On track four, ‘This is how you pull the trigger’, he may even be contemplating the second of those two options. However, the flower sprouting from a human heart on the cover (Megan Ellis artwork), seems to promise some sort of renewal and hope amongst the teeth-grinding pain of existential horror proposed by this record.

 

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1. MoHa!, ‘Mekke Tid’
   From Rock/OFF!, NORWAY HUMBUG 067 7” SINGLE (2006)
2. Blue Sabbath Black Cheer, ‘Live at Rotture, Portland Oregon, May 19th 2007′
   From Eva, USA DAISY CUTTER RECORDS DCR 001 7” SINGLE (2007)
3. Anla Courtis, ‘Psychokinesis Blues’
   From Psi Gtr Avalanche, DENMARK SMITTEKILDE RECORDS SMK R 003 7” SINGLE (2007)
4. Sunburned, ‘Smokescreen’
   From Weekend at Burnie’s, UK NO-FI NEU 005 / USA MANHAND 56 7” SINGLE (2008)
5. Altar of Flies, ‘…hate this city’
   From USA DAISY CUTTER RECORDS 004 (ND)
6. Bela Emerson, ‘Scythe’
   From UK THE SLIGHTLY OFF KILTER LABEL sok009 7” SINGLE (2005)
7. ZU, ‘The Last Portrait of Him holding a knife in his right hand’
   From USA IMPLIED SOUND IS005 7” SINGLE
8. Geoff Mullen, (B side)
   From A Rip in the Fabric, USA RARE YOUTH RY003 7” SINGLE (2006)
9. Antennacle and Bastard Noise, ‘He no longer lives entirely among us’
   From USA KITTY PLAY RECORDS KPR 9 7” SINGLE (ND)
10. Oren Ambarchi / Lasse Marhaug, (A side)
    From Worried Friends / Nervous Enemies, NORWAY PICA DISK PICA002 7” SINGLE (2007)
11. Radio Ruido, ‘Green Globe / Libro Roto’
    From False Rosetta, USA FREE103POINT9 AUDIO DISPATCH 032 2 x 7” (2007)
12. Jean-Louis Huhta, ‘Ripper XXX’
    From SWEDEN EK-KE EKKE04 7” SINGLE (2007)
13. Autopsia, ‘Silently the Wolves are Watching’
    From ILLUMINATING TECHNOLOGIES IT 008 7” SINGLE (2007)
14. Masonic Youth, ‘Going Down’
    From DENMARK SMITTEKILDE RECORDS SMK R 002 7” SINGLE (2006)
15. D.R. Ragge, ‘Gryllotalpa Gryllotalpa’ (1968)
    From Entomological Acoustics, UK PERIPHERAL CONSERVE pH-12 7” SINGLE (2003)
16. Latitude / Longitude, ‘Solar Filters’
    From USA FREE103POINT9 AUDIO DISPATCH 031 7” SINGLE (2007)
17. Evil Moisture, (A side)
    From Ghost Meat, DENMARK SMITTEKILDE RECORDS SMK R 004 7” SINGLE (2007)
18. Charles Hayward, ‘Beside’
    From UK DOTDOTDOT MUSIC 005v 7” SINGLE (2008)

The Sound Projector radio show,
originally broadcast on Resonance 104.4 FM

From Vancouver in Canada we have a couple releases described as ‘experimental noise works’ and attributed to Absolute Value of Noise. On Magnetic Focus, we have eight recordings based around a wire coil antenna and a receiver, picking up VLF frequencies generated by lighting, power lines, mobile phones and computers. Am I imagining things, or didn’t Disinformation explore this possibility quite thoroughly in the mid-1990s? Joe Banks arguably ended up with more powerful recordings than this Canadian project, but there is still a very good mesmeric charm to these inert buzzing snakes of electricity uncoiling in their slow, purposeless manner. The impossible image on the foldout cover is by Uskalla, proposing something halfway between performance art and urban installation (and perhaps enhanced in Photoshop also). If you require something even more preposterous, play The Laughing Dress, a collaboration between this project and Lori Weidenhammer. This recording, again sitting somewhere in the interstices between performance art, poetry and dramatic recit, depicts episodes in the life of a mermaid called Melusine. And uses sounds derived from her gigantic scaly dress, which was constructed especially for the occasion with the help of Canada’s Council for the Arts, who sponsored the video version of this work. The oceanic backdrop sounds on this one are pretty compelling, but I found Lori’s solemn and symbol-laden intoning pretty tough to sit through.

Quite nice guitar playing on the resonator guitar from Music For One (i.e. Canadian player Sherry Ostapovitch), on a CD called The Red Thumb (PERENNIAL SOUNDS PS001). It arrives in a sumptuous handmade art package printed (perhaps with linocuts, or very chunky screenprinting) on tactile art paper. I’m interested to note that Sherry has played with English improvisers Lol Coxhill, Steve Noble and John Edwards. And one of her track titles, ‘Circadian Rhythms’, matches the name of a 1970s INCUS LP. There is certainly an open-endedness to her style that might fit nicely alongside the work of those free players, although her sound is so gentle you wonder how she competes with the barking sax of Edwards when he’s in full mad-dog mode. So far I don’t detect any self-conscious nods in the direction of John Fahey either, which I must certainly reckon as a positive boon. Her playing method derives from natural rhythms of the human body, a strategy which aligns her with Pauline Oliveros, Rev Dwight Frizzell, Evan Parker, Dave Knott, and many others.

An insanely reduced piece of minimalism is this from Ibitsu, called Foolproof Betters Fools Bettering Foolproof (EDITIONS MEGO DEMEGO005). Even at peak volume, I can’t hear anything going on for 24 minutes apart from a vague, muffled murmer which might be a midget walled up inside a cupboard next door and struggling to free himself from his bonds of leather. ‘Demands total attention,’ we are informed, ‘as well as playback on correct speaker systems’. Hmm. How are we to know if they are correct? This oddity comes from somewhere in Japan, and is decorated with numerous mysterious images of casks on the cover. An empty barrel makes the most noise…or in this case, no noise at all.

Oldman’s Two Heads Bis Bis (LOW IMPEDANCE RECORDINGS LOZ 14) is a lugubrious affair sent here from Greece. Charles-Eric Charrier performs here with the help of drummer Ronan Benoit, and others, and a thoroughly deconstructed rock record is arrived at through the use of bass and electric guitars, many layers of samples and voice recordings, and a determination to keep everything even more sluggish than a record by Les Rallizes Denudes. The drumming is so loose and all over-the-shop that it appears to have been recorded on another planet. In these dense constructs, Charrier is also attempting to layer in fragmented narrative elements to produce some form of twisted poetry, a twisted fairy story, and images of alchemical processes we can grasp at. The gatefold package for this one is extremely powerful, an all-black foldout affair with clear-ink overprinting to conceal graphically strong, linear images packed with strange symbols, urban scapes, and severe weather effects.

Matmos are the San Francisco duo of intellectual-avant electronica music, here with a rather lavishly-packaged record called The West (AUTOFACT FACT06 CD) which arrives in a quadruple-gatefold digipack. Also out as a double-LP, it’s decorated with the faux-old style typefaces which a graphic designer usually reaches for when pressed to convey the idea of ‘olden days’, which here may mean anything from the Old West to a Victorian sewing parlour. Inside we spy at least one photo of a man with a cowboy hat and another drawing a six-shooter. Spin the disk for a many-layered and charming experience of cleverly-arranged electronic shards and fractured micro-beats, on five tunes recorded and arranged sometimes with the help of some big-name guys, including members of Tortoise, Slint, Palace, Swans and Neurosis. With track titles like ‘Last Delicious Cigarette’, they aren’t exactly tramping on the same turf which Earth have tried to annexe into their world-view (e.g. the Hex double LP), but this is shaping up to be a very nifty collection of studio concoctery.

I See Beyond the Black Sun (KLP200) is an item of extremely distinctive bizarritude that warrants close auditioning from the thinking lugs of any discerning reader…Arrington de Dionyso is using his bass clarinet and wild throat-singing methods to say something about primordial mankind’s existence, with faux-primitive cover art that renders nude ladies in a coarse and capable painterly style that attempts to blend cave painting with modernism in ways we haven’t seen since Picasso first clamped his rookers on an African mask in Paris. It ain’t the cover of Electric Ladyland, that’s for sure! With an endorsement by Michael Gira (no less a man), this honking hooteroonie is the droningest dreamtime-inspired piece of ethnic nightmare I’ve heard this year. With some connections to his former post-punk band Old Time Relijun, this is sufficient to make you wanna investigate Dinoyso’s previous solo effort, the 2006 album Breath of Fire.

From the label Lumberton Trading Company we have Human Greed, with a CD called Black Hill (Midnight at the Blighted Star is its subtitle) (LUMB011). With a wealth of mixed messages on the detailed and highly-rendered symbolic cover paintings (Louis Wain meets John Martin by way of Tim Burton’s animations), there’s no denying a strong whiff of the English Gothick on this album of ‘melancholic extremism’, as it has been described by other men’s lips. A few tracks spun so far reveal something more delicate than Bauhaus, though; a wispy, fog-ridden and menacing electronic ambience abounds, mostly the work of Michael Begg with the help of a few friends and collaborators, including David Tibet, Deryk Thomas, members of Blind Cave Salamander and even a former member of folk-prog 70s outfit Mellow Candle. It’s a good wintry chiller album full of black atmospherics.

For further chilling sounds, you may want to bend a frozen ear towards Demoni Paradiso (12 TONAR 12T047), made by a quartet of well-known Icelandic electronica artists who call themselves Evil Madness for this project. BJ Nilsen is one of them, Stilluppsteypa is another. Record does boast a nifty colour cover of demonic joker in military uniform taking photos (and there’s a booklet inside filled with even more of these illogical cartoony scrawls and computer collages), but I can’t find much substance on th’ disc with its drifty, meandering cuts. Some of them have beats and rhythms and thus bring the record’s sound a shade nearer to the ever-familiar Krautrock and progrock touchstones (as the press release would have us believe); those without rhythms are just empty, vapid soundscapes. I wish there were some genuinely evil madness going on here, but these northern wizards are proving to be mere mountebanks.

What’s new in the garden? We’ve just updated the shop page with a few new things to buy! The page now displays cover prices (please remember postage is extra).

What’s new…

Vinyl Viands - price now slashed to 50p!

TSP 9 and TSP 10 - got a limited number of shop-soiled copies available of these sold-out back issues. They may have sunned spines, creased covers, price sticker residue, etc - but all pages intact. 50p only.

Comics by Ed Pinsent - nothing to do with music. You can now purchase copies of perfect-bound comic books by Ed for only 50p each.

 

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1. Rehab, ‘Kingston Avenue’
   From Man Under Train Situation, NORWAY +3DB RECORDS 002 CD (2008)
2. Vopat, ‘Dermis’
   From Lathe EP, USA INAM RECORDS 26 3” cd (2008)
3. Darsombra and Pulsoc, ‘Nymphaea (True Love Never Dies Remix)’
   From Nymphaea, USA PUBLIC GUILT PGL009 CD (2008)
4. Menace Ruine, ‘Dismantling’
   From The Die Is Cast, CANADA ALIEN8 RECORDINGS ALIENCD82 (2008)
5. Wicked Witch, ‘Fancy Dancer’ (1985)
   From Chaos 1978-86, JAPAN EM RECORDS EM1080 CD (2008)
6. Electric Orange, ‘Gewächs’
   From Fleischwerk, GERMANY SULATRON st 0803 CD (2008)
7. Manteca, ‘Afro Funky’
   From Ritmo Y Sabor, JAPAN EM RECORDS EM1079LP (2008)
8. Bela Emerson, ‘Skinny Fingers’
   From Hespera, FRANCE BIP-HOP [BLEEP 38] CD (2008)
9. Joel Stern, ‘Wake in Fright’
   From Objects Masks Props, AUSTRALIA NATURESTRIP NS3006 CD (2008)
10. Angel, ‘Dropping the Ego’
    From Hedonism, AUSTRIA EDITIONS MEGO 093P CD (2008)
11. Fennesz, ‘Saffron Revolution’
    From Black Sea, UK TOUCH TO:76 CD (2008)
12. Unseen, ‘Skit’ + ‘Unbelievable Productions’
    From 2012, UK HANDMADE IN ENGLAND RECORDINGS cdhmier03 CD (2008)
13. Muarena Helena, ‘He Moved in on Monday’
    From Fierce Pale Hen, UK ROCK PIGEON RECORDS NO NUMBER CD (2008)
14. Susan Matthews, ‘Missing’
    From Hope-Bound, UK SIRENWIRE RECORDINGS SW74 CD (2007)
15. Yximalloo, ‘Samui Shibuya’
    From Unpop, USA ESP-DISK’ ESP 4047 CD (2008)
16. Korperschwache, ‘Scenes from the Children’s Crusade (The Sea Does not Part)’
    From Eight Velvet Paintings For Helen Keller, USA INAM RECORDS 24 CD (2008)
17. Conlon Nancarrow, ‘Study No 7′
    From Studies for Player Piano: The Original 1750 Arch Recordings, USA OTHER MINDS OM 1012/15-2 4 x CD (2008)

The Sound Projector radio show,
originally broadcast on Resonance 104.4 FM

 

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1. Kolkhöze Printanium, ‘Our Faces at “The Motown” Part (b)’
   From Kolkhöznitsa, FRANCE D’AUTRES CORDES RECORDS D’AC 151 CD (2008)
2. bran(…)pos, ‘1-Armed Yank with Sekhem Em’
   From Coin-Op Khepri, USA C.I.P. CIPCD021 CD (2007)
3. The Bird Names, ‘New Mexico’
   From Wooden Lake / Sexual Diner, USA UNSOUND RECORDS UNS004 CD (2007)
4. If, Bwana, ‘Once Upon a Time’
   From Radio Slaves, RUSSIA MONOCHROME VISION MV11 CD (2007)
5. George Korein, ‘Singsong Corpse II’
   From Another Corpse, USA MAJMUA MUSIC 1 CD (2007)
6. Microblind Harvestmen, ‘Reaction to the Past’
   From Songs & Instrumentals from Death Bottom Slide, USA DIGITALIS DIGI042 CD [2007]
7. Mary St John, ‘The Treatment is done in complete darkness’
   From Some Leaves Turned Red, Some Still Green, USA INTERNATIONAL CORPORATION NO NUMBER CD (2008)
8. Allroh, ‘Ade’
   From Nym, AUSTRIA TROST TR097 CD (2008)
9. Dial, ‘Dirt Jungle’
   From 168k, UK CEDE RECORDS CEDE 03 CD (2007)
10. Bird Show, ‘Stay High’
    From Innature, USA BARGE RECORDINGS BRG001 CD (2006)
11. Manpack Variant, ‘Nice Face’
    From Sticky Wickets, USA DIGITALIS DIGI047 CD [2007]
12. Tea & Toast Band, ‘Rilis ni Noon’
    From Moonbeaming, UK THE MENTALIST ASSOCIATION TMACD019 CD (2007)
13. The League of Automatic Composers, ‘Radio Air Check 1981′
    From The League of Automatic Composers, USA NEW WORLD RECORDS 80671-2 CD (2007)
14. Cath and Phil Tyler, ‘Fisherman’s Girl’
    From Dumb Supper, UK NO-FI RECORDINGS NEU008 CD (2008)
15. Sharron Kraus, ‘Midsummer’
    From Right Wantonly A-Mumming, UK BO’WEAVIL RECORDINGS WEAVIL 25CD (2006)
16. Bill Baird, ‘Cloud Breath’
    From Silence!, USA BIG ORANGE RECORDS BO 005 CD (ND)
17. Acolytes Action Squad, ‘The Yak’s Head pts 1-2′
    From Winkle Time, UK EARLY WINTER RECORDINGS EWR5 CD (2007)
18. Phil Minton / Yagihashi Tsukasa / Sato Yukie / Higo Hiroshi, (Track 6)
    From Nippara Tokyo, JAPAN AUSTIN RECORD ARR-0017 CD (ND)
19. mudboy, ‘Shockwave!’
    From Hungry Ghosts! / These Songs are Doors, USA DIGITALIS ARTS & CRAFTS EDITIONS ACE005 CD (2007)
20. The Child Readers, ‘Young Worlds – Try to Hear!’
    From Music Heard Far Off, USA SOFT ABUSE SAB 021 CD (2008)
21. Curia, (Track 2)
    From Curia, USA FIRE MUSEUM RECORDS FM15 CD (2007)

The Sound Projector radio show,
originally broadcast on Resonance 104.4 FM

TSP 17th OUT NOW!

What content be herein?
Purchase it thou mote

In keeping with the Autumnal climes, Sone Institute have packed a number of dried leaves into the jewel case of Silver Leaves and Woolly Dreams (THREE TOWERS RECORDINGS 013), a six-track EP in CD form. Also some small feathers and cut-out paper shapes. I suppose the same playful spirit may be discerned on the music they make, which I think derives from cut-ups and samples of easy-listening records perhaps combined with some original electronica playing as well, mostly issuing from synths and drum machines. For me, the resultant queasy mixtures verge on the indigestible, and the lack of structure lends each track a certain disjunctive incoherence. But perhaps everything makes more sense heard in the right nightclub environment rather than on a home stereo. 60 copies only.

The great Bela Emerson is a UK cellist who captivated me with her Scythe EP for The Slightly Off Kilter label. Now here she is with a fine full-length solo effort Hespera (BIP-HOP BLEEP 38) for the French Bip-Hop label. While not exhibiting the same attack and tension I recall hearing on the EP, this CD does much to demonstrate her skills with FX pedals and live sampling, presumably used in real-time situations. Of course she is a first-class cellist too! Emerson never conceals her talent with indulgent echo-chamber play, and beautiful rich melodies are never far away, summoned up by her skilled, gripping fingers. Man, I bet she could open a jar of pickles just by looking at it. On this record, remarkable sonic textures rub up against each other to the extent that I would say the instrument’s true voice is unleashed, rather than being buried under a pile of studio effects. In fact, make that several true voices – she makes her instrument speak in tongues.

Pinko Communoids are an American trio of improvisers who made Volume 1 (INHARMONIK 001) in 2006-07, recording it directly to tape at a venue in Virginia. The low-key results seem to be quite heavy on the Gamelan percussion and the languidly-thrummed electric guitar, alongside occasional mournful parps and squeaky barks from a saxophone. I wondered at first if this was more evidence of the ‘quiet mode’ school of improvisation’s influence, a school which has enjoyed such prominence in Japan and parts of Europe, but in fact I just think it’s just regular improvisation played and recorded in a rather subdued way. The Pinkos don’t have quite the same iron-willed control you hear in the work of Toshimaru Nakamura, for example. A little too meandery for me, but their combinations of sounds are not without interest.

I haven’t heard from the Austrian Mosz label in a while, it seems to me. Here’s an excellent double CD set Till the Old World’s Blown up and a New One is created (MOSZ 016), played by the trio of stalwart improvising-laptop-guitarist-chamber jazz ensemble of Christian Fennesz, Werner Dafeldecker and Martin Brandlmayr. Time was when these guys seemed to be ubiquitous on the international festival circuits (maybe they still are) in individual or collective set-ups. The package offers the 34-minute title track on one CD, with three shorter cuts on its sister mini-CD, packed in clear and minimal dressage of plastic and paper. The slow and heavy music, not without a nostalgic and melancholic air, is absolutely perfect for November listening. Christian’s guitar draws out those ponderous and leaden notes in a way that Oren Ambarchi used to have monopolised as his personal style; meanwhile, the acoustic bass, vibes and drumkit setup pulls the sound in the vague direction of small-ensemble jazz (an interesting update on the Blue Note sound), while sparingly-used computers occasionally add layers of abstracted digital noise. Grand!

The amazing Swedish artist Per Svensson sent me Intergalactic Transmission!, along with a number of other interesting documents and releases which are buried in another cardboard box destined for later exhumation. The large black box is about the size of something you could use to store your seven-inch singles, and inside is a CD in a card wallet plus a thick book which is the catalogue of his art exhibition at the Ystad Art Museum from May-June this year. We are slightly familiar with this fellow from his presence on the Elgaland-Vargaland compilation from some years ago, his Audio Laboratory persona on Firework Edition Records, and his solo work as The New Alchemy (an avant song-based project which is something of an acquired taste). However, this ten-track CD is something of a stunner. I think the sound-art pieces represent aspects of his many-layered work, which is also expressed in visual forms in the catalogue through striking sculptures, paintings, photographs, drawings on paper, performance actions, and art gallery installations. He’s made powerful field recordings of thunder and lightning, and apparently even captured the sound of solar energy using solar collectors and sun panels on ‘Recordings from the Sun’. (Disinformation captured solar prominences as radio waves, but ended up with something quite different). Svensson has also made sound documents from the acts of drawing, painting and building sculptures. Most astonishing of all is the eight minutes of ‘Intergalactic Transmission!’ itself, where radio voices were broadcast over loudspeakers pronouncing ‘we are the angels, we are the aliens’. Scarily, these voices are said to be ‘unidentifiable supernatural sounds’, producing an effect you’ll want to file alongside your Ghost Orchid CD from Touch. While some of the Swedish brigade (e.g. Carl Michael von Hausswolff, with whom Svensson has collaborated on numerous jaunts) pride themselves on austere minimalist statements, Per Svensson strikes me as a maximalist, a polymath, and one whose brain is so brimful of creative energy that it spills out into many forms, all of them packed with cryptic information, colours, texts, symbols, rich surfaces and engaging layers. Alongside his interest in the environment (the more rugged the terrain, the better), there is a visual preoccupation with alchemy and all its hermetic symbols, which surface repeatedly in his lush paintings and detailed drawings. There’s a real engagement with the very juices of life itself, and he seems to live and produce very much in accordance with his slogans such as “You Can’t Control Creation!” and “Free The Mind!” Who can disagree with that?