Marcus Fjellström: Library Music I

In his first release under the Kafka Garden label, Marcus Fjellström has released one of the most diverse albums of the year so far…

Those who have been lucky enough to listen to last year’s marvelous “Schattenspieler” would know what to expect from the man: The immaculate attention to detail, the seamless flow from track to track, the quality of production and the veritable emotional impact of each song. In “Library Music I”, all these elements are there and the production is a bit tighter and the sounds that much crisper. The mood, however, is totally different.

“Schattenspieler” was dark grey, moving along morbid paths filled with tension and a constant anticipation of the worst. Optimism had no business being there and the whole album was crushing. Library Music I, on the other hand, is an infinite array of colors, where each emotion has a place, the range of moods is wider, the songs are more to the point and the sonic palette maximized. The album’s name also provides a bountiful amount of food for thought; a name that infers many things that could be musically interpreted and presented in a pretty large variety of ways.

Libraries, in their most traditional definition, infer quietude. A forced sense of calm that is kept in place by the goers and keepers of the place, a sanctuary for a multitude of people aiming to escape the loudness of the world and add value to their knowledge of souls by delving into and embracing whatever it is they fancy. This element of variety, of having a world of options comes through throughout the album; the definition of a library itself, however, isn’t the most conventional one.

This album documents Fjellström’s nod to “the classic old music libraries used for TV and low budget movie productions in the 1960’s and 1970’s, as well as the curious early electronic experiments of Raymond Scott and the BBC Radiophonic Workshop”, and the eighteen tracks on the album show just that.

LM-101 kicks off the album in a manner that doesn’t deviate much from the man’s previous works. The creepiness is still there, the unrest, the tension all seem to be walking hand in hand as the track progresses with vinyl crackles in the background and slowness prevailing. LM-102 then moves into the cheesy thriller movie soundtrack territory, with piano chords crashing and percussion and strings running in the background. Cheesy might be a turn off, but the way it is done here, sounding so purposeful and in no way a sincere attempt to get the pulses racing, makes it endearing to the listener. It makes Fjellstöm’s fun side come to the surface; a side anyone who’d listened to his previous works could’ve hardly known existed.

The album’s experiments in various sounds, with constant ups and downs continue leaving the listener at a total loss at what to expect with every passing miniature. The circus themed LM-105 follows the rising drones of LM-104 and the waves of dark synths of LM-110 rain heavily on LM-109 child dream’s parade. You lie down and take a heavy breath after LM-116’s panning violin swirls and get off your feet to dance with LM-117 only to say farewell to this tumultuous trip with the beautiful piano of LM-118.

To many of you reading this, the prevailing thought might be that the album is disjointed, lacking coherence and might not hold interest for a long period of time. That would mean you have given one (and a half) out of three right. The album is disjointed and is so by design. It lacks coherence in the conventional sense of having no straight theme, mood or consistency in choices of instrumentation, but it would be extremely hard to imagine that someone might listen to this and not know that all 18 songs were done by the same person for the same album. Fjellström’s ability to add tension to anything he touches (case in point would be that latest installment of the series Salad Finger’s which he created the soundtrack for and which can be viewed here) is prevalent throughout and it is what gels the tracks together. When it comes to holding interest, that goes without question as the abundance of ideas and execution is riveting from start to finish.

This is hopefully the first in a series of albums following the same suit and one can’t help but see what else Fjellström will conjure out of his pocket. In the span of less than a year, he has established himself as one of the prime examples of ambitious artists that could definitely make a difference in the way other musician’s and listener’s perceive music. The best thing, however, is how much his love of music comes through within this album, and that love is transferred to the listener, which makes the whole experience one to cherish.

- Mohammed Ashraf for Fluid Radio

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