I have assumed Moljebka Pvlse was the solo vehicle for Swedish player Mathias Josefson, but today’s item An Expression of a Poetry that was Lost (ZOHARUM ZOHAR 352-2) sees him joined by three other musicians, all of whom also appeared on The Distant Past Resounds, their offering from 2023.
When last noted, Josefson appeared to be engaged on an ambitious project to do with mapping an imaginary space – not sure if this represents the latest instalment of that grand design. Two long pieces are called ‘Memories’ and ‘Dreams’, two axiomatic parts of the human consciousness that, it so happens, are also something personally valued by this writer, and I’m happy to applaud any artiste bold enough to attempt a swoop in these highly abstract areas. While I’ve previously been underwhelmed by the static drones of the Pvlsester, on today’s spin it makes perfect sense that things stay in one place, the imagined protagonist standing quite still while these delicate unknown forces swirl around them in a wispy way. Even better would be a blend of memories and dreams in the same sound-world or recorded event, celebrating the glories of two major intangibles at the same time.
Mathias Josefson plays electronics, while around him we hear the piano of Hara Alonso, the harp of Isabel Fogelklou, and the bass guitar of Kris Kuldepp, on what is described as a Swedish-German project. Real instruments, yay. Can it be that no “field recordings” were used in the weaving of these spectral sheets? I’d be very glad to learn if there’s a trend away from that much-overused device of “layering” field recordings with ambient drone oozing out of a computer.
Pleasant cover art which, for some reason, makes me think of a still from a Werner Herzog film. (06/01/2026)