Latest instalment from the FRIM label devoted to new music and (mostly) free improvisation in Sweden…FRIM4 called Grain Live showcases Kasper Agnas and his guitar on three substantial pieces. We heard this fellow not long ago with his 1305 short album for Haphazard Music which contained the pleasing piano work, ‘Little Towels of Air, Warm and Wrapping Against the Heart’.
Certainly enjoyed the rousing ‘1992’ here, some 10:36 mins of energetic hammering-on and non-stop strumming action, the performer jabbering away like a pneumatic drill crossed with an insane sewing machine. Impressively, all his notes hit the same harmonic range (perhaps he had the guitar in an open tuning as used by blues guitarists), and the overall effect is intense and uplifting. Our man Brian Olewnick claims that Agnas has managed to turn his guitar into a dulcimer, and I can’t disagree. Conversely on ‘Mirrored Memories’ he’s turned it into a church organ. Downbeat and solemn drones march us off to the other side in time to the beat of the Reaper’s footsteps. Apparently he got this effect by beating the strings with a mallet; this action (I wasn’t there to see it, natch) becomes a bit clearer in the latter half of this murmuring beast, when the hammering blows create a sensation of resonant steel so palpable that you can taste it with your elbows.
Hmm – I seem to be following Olewnick’s cues here a bit too much; he’s evidently keen that we savour and appreciate the innovative electric guitar techniques of Kasper Agnas. But his music here today connects on deeper, emotional planes too, suggestive of nostalgia for a more hopeful and sunlit past that never really existed, hinting at spiritual truths. I mean that Agnas is capable of a deep personal honesty in his music, and this is somehow shown and manifested through every minute on this record; perhaps it’s something to do with the clarity of the sound, the deliberation in the playing, and no intellectual baggage impeding progress. All of the above abound in the long track ‘Far Away, Closer’, a very direct and moving piece of work. Excellent. From 2nd March 2023.