#73 Svefn – “Lightness”

Mysterious Ambient Dub | Svefn is about organic Ambient music, surface noise and harmonicism (which is a word i just invented). Svefn is Manchester-based Lee Chapman who created a tiny EP tellingly entitled “Lightness”. Svenfn refers to a song by Iceland’s ethereal superstars Sigur Rós who work fine as a loose reference also. Svefn is “Sven” with an additional “f”, and this is simply awesome.
—
Lee got in contact with me via myspace because he has been listening to some of the music I’m producing and for some reason found himself to like it. He told me so. That’s nice and unless you sell a million MP3s to kids that all look like Joey Ramone, it does not happen too often. One of the singular good things about myspace is that you get to know people (or their music, respectively) in a very direct manner. So, like in a conversation, I wanted to say something about his music in reply and dug the four-track EP you can download from his website. What should I say? I like it!

The EP starts with “Break”, a dense and rich composition of fuzzy textures, reverb, noise and shy piano tones. A unique thing about the Svefn-sound is the obvious loss of palpable melodies. You can come with the Sigur Rós comparison, but Svefn is far more experimental and rigid. For “Break”, melodies form inside your head rather than they are imposed by the music. Here, the Microphone’s masterpiece “Mt. Eerie” might be a suitable reference.

Second tune “Ethereal Dunes” is beautiful Tim Hecker-style Ambient & Noise, while “Climbing the Clouds” is back with pastoral piano chords. Final track “Lightness” is all bliss. Ornamental distortion, volume, noise, up-up! Imagine the Cologne Cathedral, imagine mount up thunderclouds and the sea at rage. Pheew… It’s the big things that count in life. No one proves better than Lee Chapman. Thanks.

Release-Site: Svefn – “Lightness”
Download: Svefn – “Lightness” ZIP
Artist Website: www.myspace.com/svefn