Guest Mix by Klas Trollius
Editor’s Note: I thought about what FOND/SOUND reader Klas states below: “connected to place-making (by creating a certain atmosphere, specific to the time and place of a recording) and displacement (by transporting you to a mental, perhaps fleeting place in your own mind)” and it made me truly understand his mix, in a different way. I thought about how mixes are becoming less transporting and more discombobulating. The best mixes let you forget the start and end points to each song, they feel as a whole piece, because they are of a whole piece, coming from someone’s taste. Forget BPMs, song keys, and genres — songs and sounds, on great mixes, feel (emotionally) like they belong together because they give you a brief glimpse into another’s headspace. It’s a rare thing. If you’re here, trust, this mix is something special.
The mix is centered around an album by the Swedish musician Thomas Mera Gartz: Luftsånger = Cloudsongs. Gartz is famous for his involvement in various groups in the Seventies, such as Träd, Gräs och Stenar and Bitter Funeral Beer Band. Luftsånger = Cloudsongs was the second of his two solo albums, based on recordings made during a longer period of time near the surroundings of his house, in Gotland. Luftsånger = Cloudsongs was a mix of field recordings, drone sounds and improvisation on both traditional and improvised instruments.
Sounds that start as background ambience increase in rhythm and intensity, and the attention of the listener is constantly moving back and forth between different layers in the mix. Somewhere in the distance, behind trees moving in the wind, a choir can be heard rehearsing. A flute or a whistle seems to mimic sounds of birds in the background, and an improvisation on thumb piano moves into recorded sounds of people, dancing and chanting, ending abruptly with the word tillsammans (together). To me, the album really feels like a portrait of a place that has a deep connection to the artist.
I let sounds from the album overlay and segue into the different songs in the mix, as a way of infusing the songs with a certain atmosphere and sense of place, other than those of the individual songs. It made me think of sound and music, and how it can both be connected to placemaking (by creating a certain atmosphere, specific to the time and place of a recording) and displacement (by transporting you to a mental, perhaps fleeting place in your own mind). These two aspects are both part of what the album Luftsånger means to me. On a more personal note, the mix is also linked to a process of mourning.
Luftsånger: A Walk With Kindred Spirits
- Leo Smith – Divine Love
- Steven Brown (featuring Drem Bruinsma) – A Spirit Ditty
- Everything But The Girl – Driving (Acoustic Version)
- David Oliver – Hope for La Roo, Part B
- Tamia & Pierre Favre – Wood Song
- MJ Lallo – Blues for Buddha
- Kahil El’Zabar with David Murray – Golden Sea
- Ka Lévé– Apre Nou Byen Cheche
- Brenda Ray – Lend a Helping Hand
- The Durutti Column – The End of the Journey
- Calle Örnemark – Marco Polo
- Thelonius Monk – This Is My Story, This Is My Song
(Overlaying and in-between tracks, parts of Thomas Mera Gartz album Luftsånger = Cloudsongs can be heard)
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