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STAFRÆN HÅKON, "...Í ÁSTANDI RJÚPUNNAR"
If you're Icelandic, you're probably already aware of OlafurJosephsson's project, as his career got a large boost by opening forgodspeed you black emperor! last month in Reykjavik. His "band" nametranslates as Digital Hakon (Hakon the Good was the king of Norway inthe 10th century and has a long legacy of being name checked innumerous songs) and the music is probably the most amazingly producedCD-Rs I have ever received. A heaping serving of patience is needed asthe disc opens with a gentle 8 1/2 minute piece of soft drones andsparse guitar. Over the course of nearly an hour, the music crescendosslowly, slowly, slowly. Various other instruments are added, numerousdifferently treated guitar sounds, un-dominating beats and rhythms,bass, long-stretched keyboard synth string sounds, pianos, andbell-like chiming things (xylophones, wind chimes or keyboard sounds,it's hard to tell what's real these days). Unfortunately, as is theseeming downfall of everything I'm writing about this week, there are anumber of derivative elements. Sampled tirades of Jesus freaks hasalmost been done to death by godspeed, swirling guitar melodies echothose from the Aerial M record and chord progressions I'm hearing arestrikingly similar to those overused by Mogwai and their imitators.These aren't bad things to emulate by a long shot. If anything, moremusic needs to be this patient and delicate. Josephsson, however, seemslike a very intuitive man, tactfully issuing this disc only as a CD-R,giving out a number of songs for free on his website, www.islandia.is/hauskupa.In essence, he's made a silent statement that he's here, he's busy, butthings are not quite ready just yet for a mega-super world dominatingrelease. Pay attention to him, however, as things will happen. You canquote me on that. In the meantime, lend him an ear and I'm sure hewon't let you down. -
