Autorhythm, Songs for the Nervous System, Sweden, Thanatosis Produktion, THT23 limited edition CD / limited edition vinyl LP (2023)
The concept behind “Songs for the Nervous System” is very intriguing – according to Autorhythm’s Bandcamp page, the album “… is a series of intuitive compositions drawing from the latest medical research on how light and sound at specific frequencies [might] affect bodily functions, down to the cellular level …” and by implication perhaps, might also affect a person’s mood or even health. This would be of great interest and significance to the man behind Autorhythm, Swedish musician Joakim Forsgren, who started working on this album back in 2015 after being diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. One review of “Songs …” I have seen also mentions that Forsgren has had bone cancer treatment which affected his ability to hear high-frequency sounds. We shouldn’t be surprised then that Forsgren has chosen to focus on creating the kind of music that electronic devices and machines might play in the event that the artist himself might not be able to play due to deteriorating health. For “Songs …”, Forsgren relied on using synthesisers of the same or similar age as himself and shunned the use of computers.
The result is an album of light, warm and joyful electronic / techno music akin to Autobahn-era Kraftwerk of the mid-1970s. Indeed, opening track “Clairvoyance” might have come off one of Kraftwerk’s early releases, as it has a similar grace in its melodies and is a very expansive and melodic piece filled with radiance and space. You can hear Forsgren coaxing and pushing sounds out of his synthesisers that the original manufacturers had never intended and would still not recommend as the track speeds merrily along. From then on, more cheery music in “Doom Variations” (yes, really!) with a busy rhythm and an enthusiastic array of futuristic space effects, some of them quite cheeky, will brighten your mood. “Neurothropic Factors” is a little more doleful and its melodies and structure recall the synth pop made famous by British acts like Gary Numan, The Human League, Heaven 17, Ultravox and early Depeche Mode in the early 1980s.
“Plasticity” has that combination of surging, driving rhythms and meditative, almost nostalgic melodies that some of Kraftwerk’s work on albums like “Trans-Europe Express” has, while “Intercellular Communication” qualifies for electro-pop disco status with its robust rhythm and relentless beats while various keyboard effects bleep and bloop overhead. The constant repetition on this track and the space flotsam and jetsam together have a hypnotic effect, though this also means there’ll be some listeners who think this track overdoes the repetition and needs a bit of an editing snip here and there. “Substantia Nigra” brings up the rear with a long composition that recalls the early ambient experiments of the 1960s on Moog synthesisers. As such, it’s a more complicated, even ambivalent track at times, definitely less openly cheery, but allowing for more complex moods and atmospheres to develop and explore.
At once an easy-listening album of electronic pop ditties and an album that shares the same sense of wonder, adventure and eager exploration as electronic music works issued half a century ago did, “Songs …” no doubt will gladden the heads and hearts of many who secretly yearn for the adventuresome electronic music they grew up with, music that could be optimistic and filled with light … and even when it wasn’t light or happy, at least people could still dance to it! Despite this first album from Autorhythm being fairly short, there is plenty of variety in its sounds and in the treatment of those sounds, from straight-out electro-pop bop to something more ambient and a bit more thoughtful.