I’m not sure why I was expecting some elegantly performed twee pop but I was. However, Svarta Stugan – a Swedish duo – have instead delivered some effective and moving ambient sounds that easily escape the cage of soundtrack cues and are making straight for the sunrise.
That’s not to say that we have a case of musical anarchy here. In fact the opposite is true for these musical interludes are rigidly structured and, with not a word spoken or sung, there is nothing to distract you from the hypnotic minimalism. Whilst appearing to turn themselves into machines, Svarta Stugan miraculously inject humanity into the sequenced precision and cause you to fall into a world of Lynchian nightmares and forbidden planets. It’s the discord that does it. You think “Birth”, for example, is going to wash over you but no, it instead translates your inner torment into sound.
One listen to this EP and I knew for a fact that the immutable consequence of difference is indifference and that this is actually the sound of the Krell.
The beginning of the middle is the end. The EP is available from Bandcamp.