A Closer Listen
There’s nothing neutral about a tunnel. The enclosed atmosphere can trigger feelings of claustrophobia. Then there’s the knowledge of all that weight, solid or liquid, held in abeyance above and around you while you’re in it, suggesting the imminent possibility of collapse and adding a kind of psychological pressure. For some folks, being in a tunnel is the closest they can come to being buried alive.
On the other hand, a tunnel can be a space for a rendezvous, a spot for a lovers’ tryst, or a landmark to gather friends at before embarking on an adventure. A tube wide open on both ends, it can be a path to escape, a conduit to freedom.
It can also be a thought and echo chamber for musicians.
Working with the acoustic characteristics of a tunnel in her hometown of Härnösand, Sweden, musician, composer, and installation artist Marta Forsberg, with the help of her brother Tomasz, and musician, composer, and maker of instruments Bex Burch, has created her latest album for Warm Winters, Ltd., Sjunger För Varandra.
Clocking in at a scant seventeen minutes, SFV ripples and quivers, expands and contracts with the sounds of voices, primarily that of Tomasz, who sings five separate vocal lines written by Forsberg, which she then fuses with additional recordings of him in a studio. From that material, Forsberg assembles not so much a fully fleshed out melodic sequence as a kind of vocal palette that she can dip into for applying colorful stabs and fills.
Her canvas is a mercurial, intriguingly textured, intimate environment, shot through with distant waves of passing traffic, synth-treated sounds of glass breaking, and scraps of conversation. That same canvas can also take on dimension to become a haunted cavern, marbled with the sounds of a fractured choir (Tomasz’ vocals, given a choral treatment) suddenly torn apart by a plunging bass kick that sounds like a rocketing express train thundering overhead. Forsberg’s masterful manipulations then dial things down to a documentary style, sotto voce conversation about the challenges of recording in a tunnel, captured with near-ASMR intimacy, before opening out again in a distended semi-call-and-response vocal phrase that soon flares into sighing synths and hovering vocal clouds.
Composed of six short tracks that run together seamlessly, SFV creates an overall effect that is immersive, mysteriously moody, even explosive. Yet with Forsberg’s sensitivity to dynamics and pacing, everything stays elevated and engaging and never feels oppressive. Listening to it, you get the feeling that the possibilities contained within its all-too-brief frame are actually endless. (Damian Van Denburgh)
Thu Feb 29 00:04:00 GMT 2024