JOHANNES BJÖRK - s/t LP

Johannes Björk is a musician and literary critic based in Gothenburg. His music combines drones, pop melodies and field recordings to produce refined sketches rather than fully formed songs – resembling slowly refurnished interiors, rather than scenes with a clearly discernible subject. Originally released in a mini-edition of 12 copies for a show in Stockholm earlier on in the year, it is now presented in an expanded LP form with two tracks added in, and another two re-recorded. Accompanied in parts by renowned and emerging Swedish writers – such as Siri Ahmed Backström, Johan Jönson and Johanna Sköldbäck Martell – the music offers an electro-acoustic shelter, which houses both luminous and gloomy textures. Whilst the album shares an atmosphere with the emerging years of the Gothenburg scene to some extent, the songwriting bears witness to a production that treats lo-fi elements as integrated parts of the soundscape, though not in a way that overpowers the recording. For his debut solo album, Johannes carves out a landscape where pulsating drones form the background for the perfect melody, where field recordings and noise co-exist with harmonical dyads, and the feeling of an assuasive epiphany flow out of an ever-looming tragedy.