This year the winter has been pretty much absent again over here in The Netherlands. The whole world is talking about global warming and for years we have been noticing changes in climate. But what happens next? Jasper TX comes with a new album This Quiet Season full of dark cold winter music.
Jasper TX is the moniker of Dag Rosenqvist specialized in recordings of ambient music. He is born in a small town, but is now working from Gothenburg, Sweden. He has released several albums on labels such as Lampse and Pumpkin Seeds in the Sand and as self-released cdr's. His latest output, This Quiet Season, is his first for Slaapwel.
Not dissimilar to his previous releases This Quiet Season is full of minimal melancholic ambient music. Dag Rosenqvist builds up soft drones with guitar sounds running through effects. In a familiar approach, that is not so much different as that from his partner in crime Rutger Zuydervelt (machinefabriek), he is not so much a computer musician as someone playing around with analogue instruments and effect pedals. Sounds from guitars are stretched and looped and as such an organ like drone files the room. Slowly the sound evolves and more tones are added. By this soft melodies appear. Though, Jasper TX is about more than this. In Moments for example there are no drones at all but it’s a soft piano piece with field recordings in that background. It’s a welcome break with the familiar sound that so much of these artists have.
As a whole This Quiet Season makes me think back to the times when I was a young boy playing out in my parent’s garden in the snow or going ice-skating in the nearby park. Not because it’s such a playful album, because it’s not. It is dense melancholic music. Instead, it sounds so winterlike, which apparently is becoming more and more some Scandinavian thing.
Musically seen This Quiet Season doesn’t give us anything we didn’t know yet, but as not everything has to be new and refreshing, it actually is a really nice album and my favourite so far by this young musician from Sweden. I do hope in the future he will develop more his style and keeps surprising us with different approaches and takes a step into a new direction.
Recommended late in the evening while reading a good book or just dreaming away on the music. |
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