Dag Rosenqvist and Rutger Zuydervelt – Vintermusik

Zoharum

Originally appearing in 2006 as a limited CDR, Vintermusik finds Machinefabriek‘s alter ego Rutger Zuydervelt collaborating at a distance with Dag Rosenqvist (sometimes AKA Jasper TX) over seven tracks (plus bonus “Feberdröm / Koortsdroom”, which appeared on a 3” CDR in the same era). As the title indicates, this is music with a cold exterior, but which still allows for a warmth to reside at its heart(h), crackling in the fire-like ripples, the rumble of what could be perceived as imperceptible glacial movement or the slow slumbering breath of organic life in hibernation.

There’s plenty of chilly, if not entirely chilled, synthetic and electronic textures to engender suitably hivernal feelings, of the quietude of snow and the icy blasts of cold air from the poles. There’s barely-hinted at scurries and slides among the frosty hums and lightly-accreting glitches; almost inevitably, the scrape and clang of gong-like tones on “Gräs Som Bryts Och Går Av / Gras Dat Knakt En Breekt” cannot fail but to briefly bring the permafrost so eloquently envisaged by Thomas Köner to mind — though Rosenqvist and Zuydervelt’s winter feels much shorter and more musical by comparison, even joyously so at times.

In that respect, a piece like “Blâsa Rök / Rook Blazen” could easily sit beside Banjo Or Freakout‘s rather remarkably out there glitchy XA Christmas albums, sharing a similar sense of the feeling of midwinter and all its surrounding festivities rather than its more traditional rendering in song. At other times, Vintermusik shifts into full-blooded noise-drone mode, jagged, piercing shards of sound shattering any semblance of wintry calm on waves of feedback which segues rather disquietingly and beatifically into the gentle piano figures and the loops of the excited laughter of children on “Ljus I November / Licht In November” – and that tinkling could possibly be sleigh bells, but is more likely synthetic detritus.

Original closing track “Islossning / Ijsbreken” is a particularly evocative composition, gliding and rising on shuffling micro-samples and a choral hum which captures the crunch of snow and the most thoughtful time of the year in movingly sonorous fashion. Afterwards, however, the 23 extra minutes of “Feberdröm / Koortsdroom” take matters for one more spin into the cold, wastes of radio-staticky machines chattering among themselves.

By the album’s close, it feels like Rosenqvist and Zuyderveldt have successfully mapped out a particular idea of the season on Vintermusik that rarely descends into the obvious. All the while, they allowing themselves space and time to play with some tropes of the musical winterscape along the way, demonstrating that musique concrète is not just for the day to day, but perhaps can make reference to the festive season too.

-Linus Tossio-