AkA 11: dusa "Ljung" - recensioner
Från Random webzine. Dusa are a pleasant surprise coming straight from Sweden and they breathe cool and fresh air into the lungs of the experimental, neo-folk trend. This is a group of musicians, who in their second release blend field recordings, with acoustic instruments recorded live, tape collages and turntablism. The result is very interesting and reminds me of a dreamy-like soundtrack. This vinyl release is accompanied with fantastic conceptual graphs, as in the sleeve cards and photographs are included. If you add this to the music , you get the feeling of wandering in a charming province of Sweden with plenty of secrets to unveil. The sound collages , the distorted melodies and its rhythmic elements make this release one of the best works we have listen to these days when good and quality releases are hard to find. Direktlänk till recensionen här.
Från Filth Forge webbzine. Incredibly strange music. Can´t think of a more suitable definition for the crazy collection of sounds featured on this limited edition LP. Dusa comes from Sweden and, to my knowledge, this should be its first full-length release, wrapped in an elegant fold out cover with enigmatic vintage-looking shots taken in an unidentified desolate landscape, and enriched by a not less enigmatic collection of postcards and a full colour insert, all portraying the same locations at the edge of the world. The music is a crazy cut and paste collage of sounds, noises and musical lumps hurled from the solitary Nordic summer environment evoked in the pictures. Creakings, clumsy noises, lo-fi ambient improvisations, field recordings, cows and dogs, deranged folk bits... any source of sound seems to be allowed in this unpredictable stream of consciousness, developed along two long compositions that occupy one side of the vinyl each. If you are a dedicated fan of the most insane sound collagists, such as Nurse With Wound, Morphogenesis, Organum, the very early Severed Heads, Zoviet France or Christoph Heemann, then Dusa is another name you should note down, and you should also hurry up to get a copy of this LP before it´s sold out. If, on the contrary, you can't stand irrational, unorganized, arrhythmic and atonal sound constructions, keep off, for your mental sanity. Direktlänk till recensionen här.
Från Vital Weekly e-mail magazine. Much of the website from Akultur, who released this LP by Dusa is in Swedish, a language which I haven't mastered yet. Also the myspace page is not very clear, other than a strange selection of influences, such as Andrej Tarkovskij, Deutsch Nepal but also Wordsound and DJ Shadow. If you play the record, then things fall in place, I think. The found sound work of DJ Shadow, desolate sound scapes like a Tarkowvskij movie and the spacious music of a more Deutsch Nepal. Folk like electronics, like some of the music on Häpna (also Swedish, perhaps no surprise), but dwelling more on field recordings than say Tape. Going outside, the empty land in Sweden and recording the atmosphere, rather than a particular sound event. A bird flies over, but it was intended in capturing that particular sound. Then the radio comes in and leaves without a trace almost instantly. The guitar tinkles away, and there is a violin somewhere. Highly unfocussed this music, but that is surely not its aim. That might be to create a dense, atmospheric sound that oddly enough is also empty at the same time. Whereas the Norwegians have their noise, it seems like the Swedish have their folk tronics. Dusa is a rather fine example thereof. Direktlänk till recensionen här.
Från Judas Kiss Magazine webbzine. Arriving in a beautifully simplistic yet wonderfully intriguing sleeve with slightly off focus photography that has a very 70´s homely feel to it, comes a new release of the Swedish project Dusa. Named "Ljung" (Swedish for Heather I believe and also a family surname), the album contains two long tracks of approximately 16 minutes each and is accompanied by 7 postcards and a 12" picture insert which all carry through the imagery and aesthetic already created with the sleeves artwork. Before you even put the stylus on the vinyl you can´t help but be impressed with artwork alone and the imagery it plays with. I remember when I first received "Ljung" just looking at the artwork and accompanying insert/postcards with a real curiosity trying to workout out what is was all about. It was almost like discovering some discarded photo collection and trying to piece together a story or some sort of history for the images you´ve just found. Musically the two tracks presented on "Ljung" are the audible version of looking through this old and rediscovered photo album with fragments of sounds mirroring the captured memories that the photos held secure. Glimpses of sounds and fragmented structures float dreamlike into one other blurring the edges of where on stops and one begins. Noises collide and melt into ambient structures with folky edging. Haunting echoes of distorted memories morph with fractured samples, musical interludes and distant snippets of strained sounds to create an almost random and delicate cacophony of noises and music combined. However it soon becomes apparent that each element isn´t thrown randomly together. In fact, each untitled track is constructed in such away that the composer/author is piecing them together to tell a story or at least portray a certain time in their past, with each note and sound, no mater how small, making up an essential part of the larger picture. Because of this, "Ljung" has an immensely personal feel to it, which isn´t necessarily accessible straight away. In fact it needs a real level of commitment and perseverance to work through the album before all of the pieces start to fit together to create a full picture. A picture, however that is still blurred and out of focus with pieces missing or just doesn´t fit correctly together. For the composer though it all makes perfect sense but as a listener we can only surmise as to where we are being taken and what we´re being shown. This uncertainty only helps add to the atmosphere and highly enjoyable intrigue that is held on this slab of vinyl and makes each track gel disjointedly together as you´re lead on an unlabelled journey into a strangers past. With abstract compositions and combination of sounds and elements, this album is certainly challenging but once you accept this fact you soon become able to enjoy it immensely. Limited to only 300 copies with the first 103 coming with an additional vintage (1900-1950) postcards, I´m certain "Ljung" will disappear into obscurity in the not to distant future so is well worth tracking down a copy whilst you have the chance. Direktlänk till recensionen här.
Från Heathen Harvest webbzine. Dusa is a little known neofolk band out of Sweden. I really don't know what to say about this release other than it is incredibly odd. It's full of samples thrown together that make you feel like you're flipping through a photo album spannig the life of a countryside. The imagery that the album provokes is nostalgic to say the least. It reminds me of farm life before electricity and americanized culture. When children used to run outside with their shoes off to play in the wheat fields. Before the world became so run over with humans that we fight to work and have room to breathe. It's almost as if scientists plugged a recorder into an old farmer's brain and recorded the sounds of his memories. The album is almost completely random with its music and sounds. One minute we may be hearing someone speaking underneath a slight guitar melody, the next we'll have an odd ambient beat coming through the music, and the next minute we will have disharmonic melodies from several instruments. The production is very old school. Very grainy and poppy, even for vinyl. The artwork reminds me of 60's/70's records from bands like Simon & Garfunkel. It's actually very beautifully packaged, and even comes with postcards (one of which is a real vintage postcard.) I guess the best way to describe this album is video taping about 3 generations worth of footage, and then hitting the fastforward button randomly. We find ourselves skipping through memories as fast as they come back to us. From days at the carnival, to time back home, to piano lessons, to those moments when we were younger and though that indian rituals were fun to try to recreate, or dancing around a bonfire. Certain moments remind me of Gabber. The artist is obviously using the samples, as weird as they are, to create some catchy beats. And he/she succeeds at certain points. This release isn't bad, but it's not good either. It's hard to really truely tell someone whether this album is worth seeking out or not. The music isn't fantastic. But the sheer experimental nature of the album has been worth it for me. It's obviously not for everyone. But avant-garde doesn't even really start to describe the nature of this recording. It's really pretty creepy at times. If you're a diehard experimental fan, pick it up. If you like going "what the fuck?" a whole lot, pick it up. Dusa really gave me a foreboding but interesting experience. It's odd to me how they managed to mix the creepy side of things with nostalgia so effectively. Though the "music" parts of this album may not be the best, its what the artist tried to accomplish with this release that matters. Direktlänk till recensionen här. |
aka / produktion / label / aka 11 |