A Swedish Taste of Technology!

Nygammal kreation

2009-09-22T16:00:00.002+02:00

Jag tänkte bryta den svenska teknologins eviga tystnad med en liten dikt jag skrev för några månader sen, och som jag nu modifierat lite. Hej och hå.

_____

Jag skulle kunna beskriva

glidflygaren, som med sitt gula segel

ger sig ut för klippan, och cirkulerar den

som om, genom att se den från alla vinklar

han trodde sig kunna fånga dess väsen

eller så kunde jag rikta min penna¨

mot den äldre mannen bakom trädet

(med glasögon och mustasch från 80-talet)

just som han, med kikaren fixerad

vid något odefinierbart,

greppade en sanning ingen sett förut

(för ingen hade letat just där).

Men när jag sitter här

klockan elva en söndagsmorgon

och solen skiner på Sussex Downs

är landskapet mig inte lika nära

som noga konstruerade sprinklersystem;

flervariabelsanalys, något jag ännu inte bemästrat;

en Rembrandtmålning på Louvren – Jesus uppenbarad;

Clapham Junction, en tågstation i London jag aldrig besökt.

Tanken kan ibland vandra längre

än vad vi själva gör,

men ofta är den bunden

till samma horisont.

Lund

2009-07-07T23:04:00.006+02:00

Kondoleanser från Klostergården

2009-07-05T22:46:00.005+02:00

Det här tyckte jag var så fint att det måste dokumenteras:

Upphovsman okänd.

GFK - andra sommaren

2009-07-03T01:54:00.005+02:00

Jag sitter en del i marknadsundersökningföretaget GFKs lokaler, ritar och ringer och stör folk.

Lund

2009-07-02T00:29:00.004+02:00

Thoughts on Godard; À Bout de Souffle

2009-06-07T21:00:00.002+02:00

I just re-watched Godard's famous first feature film, À Bout de Souffle (1960), which I hadn't seen for four years or so. While no doubt one of the most overrated filmmakers ever, Godard does achieve some magic with this little gem. It is little in many senses of the word; flat, straightforward – "energy over substance", etc., and certainly fails to evoke any 'real' emotions with its never-ending parade of coquetries. But this is perhaps the purpose of it: the celebrated Godardian jump cut is much more about establishing a meta-filmic mood rather than conveying any of the purported political messages. Nay, the merit of Godard's film lies in the dream world it creates, a world completely devoid of morality and, indeed, mortality in any important sense of the word. The love expressed in À Bout de Souffle is not real love, but cinematic love. Its people are not real people, but (non-trivially) cinematic people. It's a movie which couldn't have been made by anyone other than a film critic.

Aron

Filosofisk trudelutt

2009-05-19T11:47:00.000+02:00

Och den där känslan av att våren faktiskt ligger i luften – hur sliten metaforiken än må vara, hur svårt det än är att förstå vad uttrycket egentligen vill säga mer konkret – kommer likväl över mig, och jag kan inte värja mig för dess sanning. Inte blommorna, inte solen, inte värmen – inte ens fågelsången – utan något helt annat, en abstrakt storhet vars omfattning är begränsad till just luften, är källan till denna förnimmelse av vår. Ibland är den bästa beskrivningen inte den som pekar ut fenomen som faktiskt existerar i världen, och i just det här fallet råkar en besynnerlig animism vara det lämpligaste sättet att återge våra känslor. Alltså (och jag känner att det här skulle göra sig bra på tyska, men min uttrycksförmåga är begränsad till det svenska språket): vårens själ (Seele? Geist?) har anlänt.

Mvh Aron

2009-05-11T17:58:00.004+02:00

Hey everyone...

Just want to share some of what I've been up to lately. Not that I think anyone's got any interrest in this blog no more, but... As you can see these are very egocentered pieces, and is simply put beacause I am hunting for a front to a futur demo of some kind. Paris sucks the power out of me, forgive... it...

Frans

drrrr, drrr, drrr

2009-02-19T00:30:00.006+01:00

Or whatever your respective alarm- clocks sound like. Time for new postings and reports!

A triptych of diptychs:

This is the result of a drawing assignment. The first part of the assignment was to draw ones hand in very enlarged scale, these drawings are about 90*50 cm (wild guess). Next we were asked to draw another object of roughly the same size as a hand in the same scale and somehow tie the two pictures together. I drew a half- emptied tube of paint. Coal and ink pencil.

Two paintings by my classmate Jenny, on the subject of memory, or rather two specific memories. I really like these two, they get a mood across to me with simple means.

These two I made, also after two visual memories. And yeah, sorry about the bad photos.

I finally won the weekly drawing contest in my class. The subject matter needed for this to happen was not surprisingly my own appearance:

The last few weeks I've been building a wooden apparatus:

This isn't what it looks like anymore, or what it will look like when it's done. The whole idea was to build an object- sculpture that could also hold images drawn on transparent overhead sheets. These drawings will be put in the parralell slots of each board in the picture, forming rows. In the middle of this object there will be a lamp so that the drawings can be seen on top of, or through, eachother, hopefully creating a kind of scenic perspective feeling, and also combining them into one so to speak. The apparatus is almost finished now, I will start working on the actual drawings and the sculpture aspects in the week to come.
The idea originally came from the concept of filling filing cabinets with drawings. This seemed more exciting though. I guess this thing is as hard to understand as it is to explain, but I will be back with a more comprehensive report.
Technically, this has been kind of over my head. The whole project was complicated even more by my, in retrospect obviously regrettable, choice to incorporate highly poisonous gas as a vital component:

Also,
my classmate is in the local press.

I hope you're all well!

Theo

Some tips

2009-01-30T16:17:00.003+01:00

Hey!
Dear readers of all ages, I thought I should step out of my own limited surroundings for once and bring you some tips on things cultural that I consider worth checking out.
First off, on some rap shit, a guy who calls himself Thump has done a complete remix album of rapper Aesop Rocks latest full length release, None Shall Pass. The remix album is titled None Shall Proceed and can be accessed here on Youtube, though I'm sure there is a torrent version of the Mp3:s available aswell.
I really like this. The new beats bring out new aspects of the vocals, and the juxtaposition of the generally slow- paced beats and Aesops rapid raps sounds great to me. Maybe this is just non- musical- person- talk for slightly out of sync, though. The samples used are very creative aswell. I really dig the use of birdcalls on the remix of Bring back Pluto and how Thump sometimes reuses samples from older Aesop Rock tracks. Also worth mentioning is the orchestrated insanity of the remixes of 39 Thieves and getaway car. So, check it out.
In other Aesop related news, he has recently released a collaboration with artist Jeremy Fish. It can be downloaded for free right here. The inspiration for the project comes, as I understand it, from a part of San Fransisco called the Barbary Coast and it's inhabitants.
The downloadable folder contains quite alot of goodies. A great track by Aes Rock and the lyrics in pdf- format to go along with it (with his usual vivid and bewildering imagery), aswell as a video file showcasing Jeremy Fish's art. I'm not exactly a fan of Jeremy Fish, but I think this project as a whole is really interesting. And good. And free!

Recently, I saw an exhibition at the gallery of Malmö Art College (Malmö Konsthögskola). The last-year student Johan Furåker showed paintings and a roll of drawings based on the story of one Albert Dadas. Dadas was a mine worker who at several points in his life felt an uncontrollable urge to leave his bleak everyday life behinf him and roam Europe. In the psychiatric environment of the 19-th century he was given the slightly weird prognosis of Pathological Tourism, as I understand it kind of the male equivalent of female hysteria.
It was a really great exhibition, which unfortunately has now closed. Some of it can be seen here though. What I really liked was the genuine interest the artist had in the fate of this single person, and how he had spent several years working around his story. A fascinating story too, with many different levels to it, personal and social.

There is, until February 21st, an exhibition of artist Mattias Härenstams videos at Skånes Konstförening, also in Malmö. The videos, to me, seem centered around themes of depression and the longing for, or perhaps fear of, surprise and wonder in day- to day life. Definately worth checking out.

That's all for now, I hope you're all doing well!

/Theo

2009-01-22T02:12:00.004+01:00

William asked me to do the design for the logo for the club he will be arranging this spring together with Josef and Fredrik. I came up with some ideas. The name isn't sure yet, but I hope they are satisfied with my effort and stick to "Black Lodge". I started out with the ones featuring pencil. I wanted the letters to have a scary feeling to them, that's how I came up with the childish, runelike ones. It seems to me our ancient alphabet, despite its use in nazi designs, have a rustic, supernatural feeling to them.

Searching the web for inspiration, I came across some nice typefaces. My other intention was for the letters to bring forth images of 19th century circus posters and early 20th century movie posters (so I stole the letters from a couple). The zigzag on the circus one is off course the carpeting from the original Black Lodge. The bug I though might be an imaginary inhabitant of a place like the Black Lodge. Bugs are never wrong... I like them all, and I feel I have a great affection for designing logos. A monochrome kingdom is where I dwell at the moment.

I am thinking about the SweTech flyers/stickers. Thought I might do something in the same hundred, but with more colour to it. But I like the sparse, raw imagery. I hope it works out well with colours, too. Some intense, bright colour. Give me ideas of what colours I should use. After all, the decision will affect us all; since the flyers/stickers will be spread over Europe we have to think a bit about the design.

Frans

1 st dikt

2009-01-20T20:58:00.002+01:00

Stressad av den enorma aktivitet som alla andra bidrar med känner jag att jag själv inte kan vara sämre, och lägger därför dumdristigt upp en dikt i ett alldeles för tidigt skede. Mycket arbete återstår med den, men så här ser den i alla fall ut just nu:

Bruten fuga

Musiken har kristalliserats,
ett frosttäcke över landskapet.

Kylan är sin egen harmoni,
djupa vibrationer längst inuti.

Tystnad. Tystnad och ljus fyller mig.
Ett berg reser sig, tungt, trött. Uppåt.

Tankarna är blottade kadaver,
döda och vackra i det vita.

En bruten varelses sista skri
stelnar till tystnad i luften.

Koagulerad snö fyller isbergets hjärna,
men de avskärmade synapserna förblöder.

Stavar av is bryter tystnaden.
En ocean av dissonanser

forsar fram som rent renaste källvatten:
kristallerna musicerar.

Som sagt, mycket arbete återstår, men kanske kan det ändå bli något.

/Aron

2009-01-20T13:11:00.003+01:00

An idea I've been having for some four months: Let's get in touch with a bostadsbolag of some sort, and find out if it's possible for us to rent some premises! I'm thinking run-down factories or warehouses, maybe in Malmö. Through my ventilation work, I've visited huge rooms inhabited by photographs and other artists, all in Helsingborg. The idea of a monstrous space in the outskirts of a town, with a disapearingly small rent, isn't that the perfect playground for people of our guild? Imagine a forum where the SweTechs can practice what they're best at: making art! We could be making movies, paint, rehearse, record, throw parties, host performances, have concerts... Of course, for me, this wouldn't be possible until I'm back in Skåne, but my intention is to plant a seed into your minds. Fuck the financial crisis, this is a thing that actually CAN be done. OK, maybe I'm hyping our abilities a bit to much now, seeing that we will soon be scattered all over Europe. Maybe this plan of mine can't be actualized during 2009... But if we all finally end up in the same city, (either in Sweden or not) this is what I want to do with YOU. And I'm fucking serious!

/Frans

2009-01-20T01:41:00.003+01:00

Thinkig about how a good sticker or flyer would look, I came across the idea of morphing together all of the people contributing to SweTech. When I find a decent morphprogram, perhaps I'll get some results. Here's a little morph I did using a crappy application. enjoy!

/Frans

Munka motherfucking Ljungby lately

2009-01-18T22:39:00.008+01:00

Hey. Great to see some postings from you again, my ninjas!
Frans and Aron, when it comes to our mutual creative project I haven't gotten very busy yet. I plan to though, starting by re- reading the poems in their updated shape. I felt like we had alot of interesting ideas going in our little brainstorm though, Frans. An idea that came to my mind after thinking about using projections was somehow distorting these using shadows cast by other objects in the room. Perhaps using a kind of rotating apparatus where small cut-outs pass in front of the lenses of the projectors, generating an image of the sparse passers- by in the desolate setting Frans mentioned. Following me?
Also, this distortion could be achieved by placing sculptures ( I'm thinking "gips") in the room. I've made a few sketches of how these could look:

I was trying to make them symbols of longing, or searching. Something like that. I'm thinking that clothing could be incorporated in them by simply making casts of real pieces of cloting.

In other news, I was bored the other day, so I played around with a couple of images I found on my computer, making these two:

The bottom one is based on the graphics for a boss in the SNES- version of Zelda. That's the kind of stuff you just end up downloading and saving on your computer. I quite like them, I'm using the Zelda- one as my desktop picture.

Also, I've painted a portrait of Aron, based on a photo from our trip this summer:

I've been making a few of these lately, portraits mainly focusing on the shape of the head. What I've been trying to get at is a feeling of solidity or integrity, weight perhaps. I'm thinking that the gaze, which I guess generally is one of the things you're supposed to get right in traditional portrature, shouldn't have so much emphasis. I don't know.
A funny thing is that Kristin thought that my portrait looked computer generated. Similar to Tors comment. Maybe you have some facts to face up to Aron.

Before the winter break we we're given a photo assignment, to take three self portraits a day, using a so called onetimes- camera. Because said type of cameras kind of suck, not many of my photos ended up developed. Here are a few though, taken at the time where I turned of my alarmclock in the morning:

Tortured!

I really like the beats that this guy Killaper from our native Lund is making. If I'm not mistaken he used to make streetart back in the so called day, too.

That's all from me at the moment, I hope you're all doing well!

mvh Theo

2009-01-16T19:26:00.004+01:00

Hej kära Läsarkrets! (Hello dear Circle of Readers!)

Tänkte bara informera Er om att två nya låtar hamnat på min myspace.
(Only thought of informing You that two new songs have appeared on my myspace)

http://www.myspace.com/fransswahn

Desutom tycker jag att vi måste diskutera en mer aggressiv metod att marknadsföra denna blogg, som det ser ut nu är metoden mer eller mindre lika med noll. Tänkte vi kunde bomba andra inflytelserika bloggar som typ bellas eller kenzas. Eller sådana som är mer åt SweTechs håll, kanske.

Kommentarer nu!

Frans

En uppsats, en dikt och lite musik.

2009-01-14T14:02:00.005+01:00

Jag har varit inaktiv här på den senaste tiden mycket beroende på arbetet med min c-uppsats i musikvetenskap. Uppsatsen börjar nu närma sig sitt slut och jag ska bara stavningskontrollera den innan jag mailar den till mina lärare ikväll. Min musik har fått ligga ganska mycket på is på grund av uppsatsen men en del grejer har jag börjat arbeta på. Bland annat har jag börjat spela in en kassett helt utan dator med improvisationsmusik med den utrustning jag har liggandes hemma, än så länge har det blivit min sampler, mp3-spelare med ljudupptagningar och en lp spelare med diverse skivor kopplad till en distpedal. Resultatet läggs väll upp här om det blir en fullständig kassett någon gång i framtiden. I övrigt har jag börjat skriva en del musik i en mer konstmusik anda då jag känner att jag vill vidga mina vyer från den dansmusik jag sysslat med innan. Jag har två stycken på gång men det kommer dock dröja några månader innan nån av dom är färdiga då mina kunskaper inom kontrapunkt och harmonisering leder till ett ganska långsamt arbetande. I övrigt har jag börjat lyssna mer på samtida konstmusik och även försöka hålla mig mer uppdaterad om vad som händer inom konstmusiken idag. Jag kan rekommendera tidningen Nutida Musik och även redaktören Andreas Engströms blog http://nutidamusik.blogspot.com/ . Jag har även börjat läsa mer böcker och poesi och försökt sätta mig in lite i den samtida poesin också. Är intresserad av den så kallade språk materialistiska poesin, vet dock inte vad jag egentligen tycker om det här försöket till abstraktion inom just poesin det kan tyckas för att citera Adorno som ett "pseudomorphosiskt" försök där man försöker efterlikna rörelser inom bildkonst och musik som inte passar inom poesin. Jag rekommenderar dock för dom som är intresserade av modern poesi att kolla in http://english.utah.edu/eclipse/projects/LANGUAGE/language.html där alla 13 nummer av tidningen L=a=n=g=u=a=g=e finns att läsa. Jag har själv skrivit en dikt som är inspirerad av språk materialism men som blir en aning mer konkret än vad L=a=n=g=u=a=g=e brukar vara. I dikten är all text hämtad från mina vänners Facebook status, och idén blir att visa hur lika folks liv egentligen är.

Meh
Kollar på Narnia Trött
Pallar inte är bakis och hungrig
slacking Vill ingenting hej tristess
Efter timmar av schopping Öl
På tåg till lund
Är i lund call me
Är hemma
Åker nog söderut imorgon
respeppen/resfebern
Är i Berlin
Snabbare än du hinner säga
Alexanderplatz
Viva la vida
Is off to africa
Semestrar ensam

2009-01-11T19:45:00.005+01:00

Once again, me (Frans) and Theo have begun going through ideas concerning Aron's collection of poems, "Hägringar i en blomstrande öken" ("Mirages in a blossoming desert" or something like that). It's been a while since we relfected actively on the co-op, but as Aron, just efore his return to GB, whiped the dust from the project by issuing a wish the painter and musician woke up, we realised it simply had to be done. The evening before Theos departure back to Munka-Ljungby we met up to see what had changed in our minds since we last discussed the subject.

I realized that my musical vision of the poems hadn't really changed that much, I still interpreted the themes into drones, both in the bass and treble registers. I get these late 60's early 70's sci-fi and Magrittesque images in my head, something I against my will tried to pass on to Theo. I aim to imitate that space sound of sci-fi movie soundtracks but also incorporate more oriental elements, seeing that the scenery is a desert (I hope you don't consider me too much of a narrowminded exotist).

Theo's ideas, however, had changed dramatically. Initially he sketched on paintings, but upon seeing the old sketches again he now rejected the thought of a classical two-dimensional rendering. We both suggested the use of movie projectors in a small, cubical room, a vision apparantly Theo and me had had before even discussing this. The projections would recreate the atmosphere of a truly desolate place, maybe an empty worker's town in the south of Sweden (during nighttime).

I came with the suggestion we use a main theme, built around a massive bass drone that nearly drenches the entire environment. Splitting the collection of poems into perhaps five or more parts, we could place loudspeakers of some form close to every slice of of the collection. Every slice would then be represented by its own theme, in the middle and upper frequencies. These themes could revolve around simple rhythms on bells, string instruments, maybe even voices. If everything works out as it should, the experience of the music will change, depending on where in the room the participants have their location. A more advanced way of presenting the music would be motion sensors enabling interaction between the sounds of the room and the visitors. Perhaps the wall projections could also be interactive...

We have come up with more, and it will be great to publish reports on the progress of the project here on the blog. Hopefully, our non-existent readers would like to comment thoughts on our enormous performance.

And as a little conclusion, I am happy to inform you that I have started drawing again. Here are two portraits of Klara and a self-portrait. You haven't seen the end of this temporary seizure of mine! There's more where this came from. I am very satisfied with the second portrait of Klara as I succeeded in synthesizing her straight hair into a simple pattern. I don't really know what to say, I have never been the master at evaluating my own work, neither music nor drawings.

Cheers! /Frans

I'm back.

2008-12-08T17:35:00.002+01:00

Hello again. Please excuse my inactivity; my poetic sensibilities have been terribly distracted these last few weeks. Luckily however, a country walk just a couple of days ago was enought to regain inspiration.

Skogen skärper sinnena -
Mellan varje trädstam en osynlig varelse,
Under varje multnat löv ett mystiskt fotspår,
I varje tystnad ett hemligt meddelande,
Bortom varje människa något annat.

/Aron

New Track!

2008-12-01T00:05:00.004+01:00

Got another new track up on myspace now. It's a bit of a Villalobos inspired techno track with a Gregorian choir and Bo Hansson sampled organs. Since it is 10 min long i had to cut down on the quality when i put it on myspace but i guess that's nothing unusual. So check it out at www.myspace.com/jonasedenbrandt

/Jonas

Munka lately

2008-11-25T18:20:00.006+01:00

Hey, it's been a while since I last posted. Seems like october, the most active month of swedishtech so far, left us all with are guards down. Or something like that.
Actually, I haven't felt like I had anything finished, or worth bringing to the table, but here's what's been up lately.Right before our autumn break we had a full week of painting live models. It was a lot of fun and a lot of work. The teachers focused mostly on composition, as in relating the model to the room around her or him. I did learn a bit about that, I think, but it was kind of frustrating to be standing in front of a model and not focusing that much on what she actually looked like, in depth so to speak. Anyhow, this is one of the paintings I made during that week. This assignment was to try and paint like a famous or recognised painter of models. I chose Schiele. This thing kind of reminds of Carlos Capelan's stuff though.

After the break, having returned from Gothenburg and London, both great trips, we worked with performance art for one week. The overall theme of this week was "School", and each group of six or so people was ment to have a class on a certain subject. My group was assigned "social studies". This had me thinking about the social studies I had late in gymnasiet. My world view was pretty much solidified in it's current state, and it stood in stark contrast to the one presented by my teacher. This was kind of a hopeless sitiuation, because what I was studying was basically lies to me. Well, maybe more silly than hopeless. Below is the title of my individual performance.

So basically, what I did was ask everybody in the audience to write down on a piece of paper what they thought to be the best way to change the world. They had two minutes to do this. Then I walked around with a waste- paper basket, tossing some of the pieces of paper into it, and stuffing some of them in my pocket. When this was done I put the pieces of paper from my pocket into the skull of a plastic skeleton and placed it in the centre of the classroom. Eh, yeah.

People actually got more offended then I had imagined by this. Which was good and creepy.

The performance week was really intense. A lot of great stuff said and done, it kind of felt like our school opened itself up, and I was left thinking about where I usually store my emotions while making art.

And now for some nude studies of poor photographic quality:

During the last few weeks I've been working with a couple of things. I've made clay- prints out of a Bacon- painting. This hasn't turned out very good yet, but we'll see.
I've also been making collages out of Aron's interrail photos, or at least those of buildings. A lot of fun.

And I've been working on this painting, kind of a triple self- portrait. Not sure if it's done or not, or if it's good or not. This is a pretty big thing, about 1,80 * 1,40 m is my guess. Acrylics, pastels and oil on paper.

Lately I've been thinking about promotion. I think that we're up to some high quality shit on this blog, and more people should get to see/hear it. Any ideas? Stickers? Commenting on other blogs?

mvh

Theo

Dikt

2008-11-21T17:49:00.002+01:00

Här är en dikt jag och min vän skrev tillsammans genom att skriva vartannat ord. Processen var väldigt rolig och är rätt nöjd med resultat:

när det inte ens
går finns en likgiltig tanke bakom mig
över slätten och oss på moln och under finns tanken som var
nej fly -ga bort -ger klar!
också jungfrun satt hos barägaren
barägaren äger en upplevelse röd äcklig lockande
det hemsöker varandet medvetandet
nerstoppat med handen trevandes oförstående
hennes kom närmare fast fantasin
dö!
försvinn!
kom
vara sönder eller naken
inte vilja vara mer varken mindre
eller

Körkarlen on Saturday

2008-11-06T13:06:00.003+01:00

Körkarlen på lördag där Frans, William, Nils och jag spelar på lördag kostar inte 250kr som vi tidigare hade trott utan vi har förhandlat så det kostar 60kr så våra vänner kan komma. Så alla som vill höra otroligt bra musik till en bra film borde va på Kino klockan 13 på lördag. Be there or be []

Progress and apologies

2008-10-31T22:10:00.004+01:00

Once again - sorry for not contributing. Spending more than the day light hours working and sleeping in the nighttime, the blog is simply the part of my life that I have least time for. Preparations for the Körkarlen concert are moving forward. I feel a constant pain in my chest puzzling my life together. Thinking about how much we have left of the concert unrehearsed I sometimes feel partly catatonic. Rehearsals last night were a great success, and the band actually behaves as a band, as one unit. I am very satisfied with the ideas and the way they turn out, with the roles of all of the musicians. We have watched the film several times and now Jonas is working on a proper story board. We are working on giving each main character his or her own theme. There is no obvious main theme, although the themes of characters Edith, David Holm and Körkarlen himself are the ones most diligently used. If I was to describe our interpretation of the film, I would say that bass and drums at times are clearly inspired by Angelo Badalamenti, almost ridiculously so. There is also a portion of post rock in some of the songs, mainly my guitar. Some songs are centered around a repetitious beat on the floor tom and some are foremost dominated by ambient samples or a suggestive synth drone.

Sounds good? If you miss the concert, either because you've fled Lund or because you think 250 kronors is to high a price for this type of venue, don't be too upset! Attempts at recording the concert will be made. The recordings may be synced with the movie and in some way published. Anyway, the recording may be put on tape or CD-R, or accessible via this blog. The plans are blurry, since our main priority is to be able to play the concert at all.

Right now, I am turning my tape into mp3 files, so that those of you who bought my tape and don't own a tape player will be able to listen to the songs on that tape. If you are interested in the tunes, go to my myspace or email me at sistalivet@hotmail.com.

That's probably all for now. Thank you Aron for beautiful poems and other contributions of of importance. And thank you Theo for keeping us up to date with the progress of the Munka School. And thank you Jonas for informing us about new tracks on myspace and other useful stuff. And thank you readers all over the globe. It would be fun if every person who's read this post wrote a short comment. I don't know if I speak for all of the contributors to Swedish Technology, but I am at least interested in knowing how big our sphere may be. I will never pretend to be a cool blog post guy, all I will do is pretend to be me. So expect all posts signed Frans to be hopscotch and with millions of branches in all directions. You see, they are totally non elaborate and stream from my brain the moment I write. I have not been writing shit for quite a while. But I suppose you've already figured that one out. I am going to write. That is a promise.

Frans

Some new-ish sounds

2008-10-28T09:56:00.003+01:00

I just found two record reviews that I forgot to publish. They're a few months old, but maybe you'll enjoy it anyway.

Maryanne Amacher - Sound Characters 2 (2008)

Maryanne Amacher (1943) studied under the late Mr. Stockhausen, and rose to fame in 1967, when she created City Links: Buffalo, which was a 28 hour long piece using 5 microphones placed in different parts of the city, broadcast live by a radio station. Most of her pieces are site specific, though in 1999 she released Sound Characters (Making the Third Ear) on the Tzadik label. This is her follow-up to that album. Her droning minimalism is rather quiet in Teo! Part 1 - 2, though at times collapsing into the anguished shrieks of a post-apocalyptic sci-fi monster in Teo! Part 3. The albums real tour de force, however, is the 25-minute Teo! Part 4 (A) & (B), an intergalatic symphony of pulsating drones, bringing to mind Klaus Schulze's masterpiece Irrlicht. I certainly look forward to listening to some more of Maryanne Amacher's music.

Francisco Lopéz - Untitled (2006 - 2007) (2008)

If nothing else, Spanish sound artist Francisco Lopéz can at least boast a ridiculously large discography. His latest release, Untitled (2006 - 2007), is an over-indulgent double-CD, collecting pieces of noise and, well, silence from the last couple of years. While it does contain a few interesting sounds, the huge amount of filler material makes for a rather boring experience. What, one might ask, is the point of tracks such as the barely audible Untitled #194? All in all, his latest release adds little or nothing to a discography that is already too verbose. The art of Mr. Lopéz stands as a monument to the ever-cheapening cost of making CD's.

/Aron

New poem.

2008-10-24T21:09:00.004+02:00

As I wrote in my comment to Frans's latest post, we should all try to make October the busiest month so far for Swedish Technology. Here is my contribution. This poem recycles a few lines I've already used in another poem, but they probably fit better here. Besides, the rest of that poem wasn't any good. However, this one is, even though I could probably do some more tweaking. I really like the sober natural mysticism, though. Here it goes:

Sussex Downs 14/10 -08
En ny plats kräver ett nytt språk.
Varken gräset, tistlarna eller trädet
Låter sig luras av de namn jag ger dem -
De vet att jag aldrig sett dem förut.

Ett ensamt moln pryder en blank himmel,
Guds öga försiktigt betraktande.
Avlägsna röster vittnar om liv
Som om solen inte var bevis nog
För en värld där någonting saknas.

Alla mysterier är avlägsna -
Solen är inte bara en källa
Till ljus och värme, men också till klarhet.
Vilken fråga skulle ni vilja ställa?
Svaret finns bakom någon av dessa kullar.
Fråga ett grässtrå om varats natur
Och det fladdrar för vinden till svar.

Ett flygplan skär genom himlen
Som Fontana genom duken
Och ett nytt ljus sipprar igenom.
En överhimmelsk våglängd.

That's it for now.

/Aron
(Yes, writing the introductory text to a Swedish poem in English is, admittedly, quite silly.)

Autumn Report

2008-10-22T00:09:00.006+02:00

Hi Everybody! I (Frans)'m sorry I haven't checked in to Swedish Technology in a while, I really haven't. I have not been busy. Not in terms of creation. Or yes. I suppose you could say I have been busy.

First of all (and least interesting): I've started working on two different places the last three weeks, the jolly ol' GFK and the even jollier ol' Maceedees. My time and head has been busy scheduling my "days". I guess a reasonable answer to this could be: "why don't you use your nights for creating things?" Well, folks, I regret to admit it, but I tend to need a lot of sleep for functioning.

Second: Our concert at Skissernas Museum a month ago went close to terrific. It was (as always) a super hectic time. The 20th September being my mothers birthday didn't simplify things. The concert was disturbed by a feedback. Blame goes out to the Skissernas staff. And I got most of my cassettes left. So come get some. Or I'll send them to the U.S.

Third: I spent a lovely weekend in my summer house in Karlskrona. Getting lost in the forest I got so inspired. I've always considered the autumn the most attractive time of the year. Now I was simply stunned by the colours, the dew, the mushrooms. And I found a deserted house. It feels like a theme I will return to throughout my life. I get all these images from Stalker and I want to film or take pictures of the nature and publish. I am really drawn to the colours and technique of 1970's film and picture photographers. One way or another, I hope to make something of the best shots. I also said to myself that now's the time to make songs that sound like autumn.

Fourth: Thank you Aron for a great farewell party! It really feels empty now you're gone. And with Theo up in Munka, this blog has got bigger reason to exist than ever. I'm really sorry I haven't visited the blog for a while. How are things in th U.K.? I lost your new phone number. We should really keep in touch more, all of us. So you think we might have reached a few British readers? That's excellent! Your last poem was, as always, a voyage.

Fifth: I've picked up reading! it's a great thing! The last weeks I've processed Vians' L'Écume des Jours, unfortunately not in its origninal language, although I keep wrestling the French language every week. I recommend the book was written in a surreal, ecstatic manner. Something for lovers of escapism. L'Écume... really made me realize I must grasp my pen. Song lyrics, poetry, longer texts, anything, now...! I've started on Thomas' Portrait of the Artist as a Young Dog and Hesses' Die Steppenwolf. But I'm hard to convince, and right now these two has literary been put on the shelf. Instead I intend to survive through Jan Myrdals Resa genom Afghanistan. It seems interesting, and I want to nourish the left wing seeds in the soil that is my mind. I also intend to make a trip to Central Asia next autumn. If I've collected enough time and money. Who's up for a month long train voyage through the Quaraqum, the Hindukuh Massive and Mongolia? I'm looking for a crew.

Sixth: Been preparing the Körkarlen (The Phantom Chariot) concert together with Jonas, William and Nils Wållgren the last weeks as well. Getting a bit to close now, the venue is November 8th... so we have loads (!) to do before we can suck the audience into the universe on David Holm. Spread the word: 13.00 at Kino cinema! That goes for you folks in U.K. as well! Posters and flyers will be printed within the next days! So keep your eyes up.

Seventh: I've become big brother once again. My fathers' girlfriend Johanna has given birth to Disa!

Hope this brief explanation can make you forgive me for sucking at checking in regularly! October brown regards! //Frans

New track!

2008-10-19T23:17:00.004+02:00

After a lot of silence from my part I finally finished a track. Well at least I gave up working with it for a while. It's a dubstep inspired track with a string sample from one of Shoenbergs string quartets. The idea to begin with was to make a three track EP with modernist samples but the two other tracks have been scraped. I might get back to the idea since I like it a lot, it being a very post-modern (the sampling) visit to modernism. Well any way you can listen to it on myspace. This is probably not the final version since i already started makin a few changes that i may or may not keep so i might update the track in the future, but for the time being this version will do.

Jonas Edenbrandt

När vi blir själar

2008-10-17T23:34:00.006+02:00

På akutmottagningen kl 05 - en tid och plats isolerad från övriga världen, en maska i den kosmiska väven, ett gömställe för de som med nöd och näppe kommit undan utan att riktigt veta vad de undkommit - infinner sig oväntat en tranströmersk fromhet, en plötslig och överväldigande respekt för människolivet, ett extatiskt men lågmält jakande som genom sakta dropp fyller oss med längtan, en EKG-våg som trevande, ja sökande hoppar upp och ned, utan att riktigt finna sin väg. Några sjukhussängar bort hörs gråtblandade spyor tillhörande en ung kvinna som försökt ta livet av sig men just insett, då hon i det turkosa draperiet till sist kunde möta sin egen spegelbild, att blotta stanken är anledning nog att leva. Ett par koppar kaffe senare - det slutgiltiga beviset för att tiden övergivit oss, om så bara för en natt - är staden i rörelse; solen skiner som om den aldrig gjort något annat, vågorna slår in mot stranden, men bestämmer sig till sist för att det är i havet de hör hemma. Människorna däremot är likgiltiga inför det mirakel som just ägt rum; på väg till sina jobb, skolor eller älskarinnor får de aldrig någonsin reda på att just den där natten, på just det där sjukhuset, var en orkeslös gammal mans rosslande och oregelbundna andning ett tystlåtet men distinkt Aum, en storslagen sång till världsalltets ära.

/Aron

PS: Jag tackar min goda vän Ludwig Schmitz för den ypperliga titeln.

PPS: Now that we might indeed have some non-Swedish readers, I sincerely apologize for not making this available in English, since it's a pretty good poem.

Representing Munka Ljungby

2008-10-12T22:58:00.007+02:00

Here are pictures of the pages in one of the 12 booklets that my classmate Jenny has made. She based the drawings on fragments of a poetry- collection. This is one of my favourites. In case you can't make out the text on the last page it reads: "Bittermandel och skriande ångest".

This is a painting Jenny painted, mostly using acrylics, I think. It's a patial self- portrait and it's pretty big. I really like it, it's a shame my photo came out so crappy.

And here's a drawing of Jenny's. I dig her style.

Another of my classmates, Kristin, made this goodlooking and professional photoseries. The model is gradually undressing by cutting her clothing to pieces with a pair of scissors. She presented the photos in a kind of manual slideshow apparatus made out of wood.

In front of this photo- box she showed the cut- up clothing. Great stuff.

As a sculpture assignment, the same one that resulted in the bicycle- record player, Kristin "repaired" a pair of high- heeled shoes. I'm a big fan of these. They're filled up with plaster in order to be able to bend their shape.

I know I'm updating like crazy, but a lot of shit's been cracking here lately. Hope you enjoy it.

/mvhtheo

Reporting from Munka Ljungby pt 3.

2008-10-12T22:08:00.006+02:00

During the past six weeks my class has been working around the theme of "förlust", loss.
I've mostly been working with loss integrated in the creative process, or a means of creation if you will.

My first idea was to make drawings, counting the lines used and then gradually diminishing the number. It sounds kind of neurotic and boring I bet, but it was actually quite alot of fun. Here are two such studies out of three I've done.

My second idea was to apply a similar method to language. In my case this ment translating text seven times using Babelfish. The text I chose to insert was 14 of the United Nations' Human Rights Articles:

This text was then used as an audio, read out loud by a voice-synthesizer, for an animation my classmate Jenny did. We decided to present our work together, as an installation of sorts. We had also built a recordplayer out of a broken bicycle together, loosley connecting it to the theme of loss. Jenny also made a clock out of an actual record player and a clock out of booklets. We used my drawings as a wallpaper and presented the animation on a TV.

It's been a lot of fun piecing this together, aswell as just cooperating based on similar ideas instead of assignment by a teacher. The first time we actually played music on the bicycle was fantastic, we were fascinated like small children. All the machinery and machine-like drawing has me fiending for painting and generally doing things a bit more freely though. Also, this is pretty far from what I saw myself doing when I started at this school. To some extent I think it's because I all of a sudden have the time and resources to actually do all the weird ideas I get, which is great.

/Theo

Reporting from Munka- Ljungby pt. 2

2008-10-05T19:51:00.010+02:00

I'm not on top right now, I've got to say. I haven't been eating properly the last couple of days or something, a bit hungover, plus I was confronted with the crude, violent population of Munka Ljungby yesterday.
I was threatened to "get my skull split open" by a group of, totally unprovoked I might add, drunk inbred bastards with whom me and Kristin shared a taxi. Maybe they wouldn't have actually split my skull if they had been given the chance, but I bet they would have liked to beat me up. Not used to that shit and needless to say I got really scared.
I've stumbled drunk through Copenhagen late at night without the least bit of trouble, and I've been to most of Europe's major cities. But I guess Munka's where the action is. I'm not going to get any more worked up, but like I said, fucking inbred bastards.

So, the short painting course I took a couple of weeks back is done, and now we're working with sculpture. A lot of fun, and hard too, just to think in three dimensions. I'll be back with documentation on the results once there are any.

This is the portrait of Nicola I was working on a couple of weeks back. I'm pretty satisfied with how it came out. The skintones aren't exactly what I wanted them to be, but I do like how the jacket came out.

Here are quite a few nude studies I've done in the past two weeks. They range from one minute to 45 minutes.

45 minutes on that last one, I really like how it came out. Great lighting and great model. Slightly weird to study a naked man for such a length of time though, to be honest.

While me and Aron where out travelling I discovered the fun of colour pencils. What's so fun is the weird, ready-made palette of colours that you get handed to you, with little or no mixing possibilities. Two samples:

The one to the left is a drawing of a couple of my classmates and the one to the right is portrait of mr. Aesop Rock. It's an Idea I've had for quite som time now, to make large portraits of my favourite rappers using colour pencils.
Long-ass post tonight, but we keep busy in Munka, both when it comes to art and death- threats. Man.

/Theo

The first step towards fame!

2008-09-25T13:39:00.003+02:00

Some time ago, I sent a few poems to some magazines. One of them, ponton, has decided to publish my two poems on Amsterdam and the lake Bled. From the look of it, it's a crappy magazine, but I guess it's better than nothing. They also wanted to do a profile on me, so I sent them this wonderful picture, which they'll hopefully publish as well:

Wish me luck!

/Aron

2 dikter

2008-09-24T11:38:00.004+02:00

Dikterna jag utlovat i förra inlägget kom snabbare än till och med jag själv väntat. Eftersom jag snart skall flytta till England, har mycket av mina tankar på sistone kretsat kring det, vilket inte minst yttrar sig i följande två dikter.

Lund 31/8 - 08
Det var en dag regisserad av Antonioni:
Ett enigmatiskt montage av tystnad och stillhet
Som vore det sista kvällen före en lång lång resa.
Solen bjöd in oss till en andra vår,
Egentligen en sista sommar, och
Vid tidens horisont, en månad bort,
Skymtade konturerna av ett nytt land -
England och ingenstans. Aldrig och alltid.

Prosadikt
Morgon. Dimman vilar tung på den skånska åkermarken, men regnet vill inte riktigt ge sig till känna. Jag tappar pennan till marken, som för att jorda den, och det vattenutblandade bläcket talar ett betryggande språk. Upp för kullen. En sådan här dag tjänar en utsiktspunkt inte mycket till: jag ser bilarna köra, lastbilarna, fåglarna, inte mycket mer. Diset tilltar. Läste för några dagar sedan en artikel i Nature. Efter upprepade experiment har en viss distingerad professor lyckats fastställa evighetens längd till två och en halv vecka. Man säger att han skall belönas med Nobelpriset. Och långt långt borta, i en nyinredd skrivarlya på andra sidan klotet, har en ung man i samma stund insett sig vara Shakespeares överman. Regnet faller, lätt -

Noter
Rad 3 i första dikten är ett citat ur Gunnar Ekelöfs dikt Eufori.
Rad 8 (sista) i första dikten är ett citat ur TS Eliots dikt Little Gidding.

Citaten är alltså tänkta att fungera som en brygga mellan Sverige och England, genom att byta ut den store svenske modernisten mot sin brittiska (nåja, om vi ska vara pedantiska, brittisk-amerikanska) motsvarighet.

/Aron

GfK-dikter

2008-09-22T22:01:00.005+02:00

(I apologize to our non-existent international readers for not making this content available in English. My only excuse is that you don't exist.)

Då jag sitter på jobbet och ibland - ganska ofta - får litet tid över, infinner sig ett ypperligt tillfälle att experimentera med poesi. Nedan följer tre dikter av ringa eller obefintligt konstnärligt värde. Deras värde ligger istället i att de alla är skrivna på ett sätt som jag aldrig någonsin skulle använda om jag skrev seriöst. Som sådana kan de vara en spännande lek med den bild jag har av mig själv som diktare. Var och en av dem driver olika estetiska program till extrema punkter, och kan därför, i all deras seriositet, få drag av pastisch. Jag hoppas dock att ni är villiga att betrakta dem för vad de är.

Stora delar av detta inlägg upptas inte av poesi, utan av teoretiska diskussioner. Detta tycker jag för det mesta är beklagligt, men, som jag förklarar ovan, är den främsta behållningen av dikterna inte poesin som sådan. Dessutom är ju poängen med den här bloggen att stimulera diskussion!

Poesi. Instruktionsbok för lekman.

Slå upp sidan 219 i din ordbok. Välj 5te ordet i spalten längst till höger. Skriv detta ord på 1a raden.

Slå upp sidan 328 i din ordbok. Välj 13de ordet i spalten längst till höger. Skriv detta ord på 1a raden.

Slå upp sidan 98 i din ordbok. Välj 2a ordet i spalten längst till vänster. Skriv detta ord på 1a raden.

Slå upp sidan 58 i din ordbok. Välj 9nde ordet i spalten längst till höger. Skriv detta ord på 1a raden.

Slå upp sidan 397 i din ordbok. Välj 23de ordet i spalten längst till vänster. Skriv detta ord på 2a raden.

Slå upp sidan 282 i din ordbok. Välj 1a ordet i spalten längst till vänster. Skriv detta ord på 2a raden.

Slå upp sidan 198 i din ordbok. Välj 10nde ordet i spalten längst till höger. Skriv detta ord på 2a raden

Slå upp sidan 135 i din ordbok. Välj 5te ordet i spalten längst till höger. Skriv detta ord på 2a raden

Slå upp sidan 57 i din ordbok. Välj 12e ordet i spalten längst till höger. Skriv detta ord på 3e raden

Slå upp sidan 103 i din ordbok. Välj 8nde ordet i spalten längst till vänster. Skriv detta ord på 3e raden

Slå upp sidan 127 i din ordbok. Välj 7nde ordet i spalten längst till vänster. Skriv detta ord på 3e raden

Slå upp sidan 252 i din ordbok. Välj 5te ordet i spalten längst till höger. Skriv detta ord på 3e raden

Slå upp sidan 293 i din ordbok. Välj 15de ordet i spalten längst till vänster. Skriv detta ord på 4e raden

Slå upp sidan 152 i din ordbok. Välj 3de ordet i spalten längst till höger. Skriv detta ord på 4e raden

Slå upp sidan 22 i din ordbok. Välj 2a ordet i spalten längst till höger. Skriv detta ord på 4e raden

Slå upp sidan 69 i din ordbok. Välj 8de ordet i spalten längst till vänster. Skriv detta ord på 4e raden

Valse à la Ducasse
Jag skrev prosa; dessa helvetiskt spiralsnurrande rader som slingrade sig mer djävulskt än den friaste av fria verser. Jag fabricerade gutturala grymtningar; rytmiskt förkastliga dissonanser som slog mot väggar likt kulsprutehylsor. Jag talade: konkretistiska poem klättrade ur mitt rostiga gap likt radioaktiva kackerlackor. Jag såg in i framtiden; min cerebrala spåkula uttalade en självuppfyllande profetia om grumligt äckel. Jag åt; blodiga inälvor nådde min mun i en våldsam baklängesspya. Jag knullade; likt en utarmad, retarderad bonde sådde jag säden till min avkommas död. Jag dog; mina sista frenetiska spasmer materialiserade sig i dessa helvetiskt spiralsnurrande rader som slingrade sig mer djävulskt än den friaste av fria verser.

Vakuumbrygga
Vad skiljer min dikt från världen?
De innesluter varandra. Dikten
finns i världen finns i dikten.
I tomrummet mellan dikt och värld
Finns den slutgiltiga dikten -
En självlysande vakuumbrygga
Förankrad i nuet Pekar
Mot evigheten.

Kommentar till Poesi. Instruktionsbok för lekman.
På den mest grundläggande nivån är en dikt ett antal ord arrangerade i en viss följd. Poetens problem är således: vilka ord ska han välja, och i vilken följd skall han placera dem? Jag har här presenterat en väldigt enkel lösning på detta problem, som innebär att man slipper ta hänsyn till svårigheter som metrik, metaforik, osv.

Någon annan har säkert genomfört liknande koncept tidigare, men de är i så fall för mig okända. Jag hade under ett tag funderat över saker som stringens och slump samt hur dessa skulle kunna uttryckas i poesi. Jag hade lekt lite med slumpgeneratorer och ordböcker, men inte kommit till något tillfredsställande resultat. På jobbet hade jag den rätta distansen till projektet. Utan att ivrigt kunna plocka fram en ordbok och kolla upp resultatet kunde jag anteckna några instruktioner. På så sätt blev dessa mindre bundna till det resultat jag själv råkar få fram med min ordbok.

Dikten jag har skrivit är en algoritm. Min fullständiga dikt består dessutom av alla resultat som kan nås om man korrekt implementerar denna algoritm, dvs. en siffra som är lika med det antal olika ordböcker som finns i världen.

Instruktionerna, som ju uppenbarligen är en inbjudan att plocka fram ordboken, fungerar också som ett sätt att lura läsaren till att tro sig vara medhjälpare; allt kreativt arbete är i själva verket mitt. Läsaren som med sin ordbok plockar fram en dikt är blott en upptäcksresenär i det landskap av dikter som jag skapat. Han må vara Columbus; jag, för min del, är Gud.

Jag har själv ännu inte följt algoritmen; hittills har jag bara betraktat dess konsekvenser som en platonsk idévärld. Men, posta gärna dikter i kommentaren!

Kommentar till Valse à la Ducasse
Den här dikten växte fram, mening för mening, tills jag upptäckte ett strukturellt möster som jag började följa. Dess främsta förtjänst är att den innehåller många ord som jag aldrig tidigare hade kunnat tänka mig att använda. Dessutom är några metaforer ganska lyckade, tycker jag.

Kommentar till Vakuumbrygga
Närmast till hands för att beskriva den här dikten är kanske att kalla den för en Sonnevipastich - en diktare jag ihärdigt har läst på sistone. Den filosofiska tonen är klart sonneviesk, men rytmiskt är den väldigt avlägsen. Den är åtminstone ett stycke alldeles för seriös poesimetafysik, men jag vill ändå inbilla mig att den har sin charm.

Hela detta inlägget var nog i själva verket en dålig ursäkt för att jag är en dålig poet. Jag lovar att snart publicera några dikter som jag faktiskt kan stå för.

/Aron

Some pictures

2008-09-18T10:58:00.005+02:00

Me and my friend Amanda spent this Sunday taking some pictures out at a shopping mall near my apartment. It's a really ugly place but we managed to take some pictures we were satisfied with. I just finished editing my pictures and it's obvious that I should not quit school to pursue a career in photography but I figured I'd post the ones I liked the best any way. In the editing I was very inspired by the modernist photographer Bret Weston and also his more famous father Edward Weston and also by black metal covers. Well any way here they are.

/Jonas

Britches Tape Comming Up!

2008-09-13T03:54:00.004+02:00

Eager readers!

I, Britches (Frans Karlsson/Swahn) will try to release my demo tape next week. I've made designs for the sleeve, and begun the final mixing of the songs. The current step is to chose which song will make it to the final tape. The participants of Swedish Taste of Technology are welcome to listen to the songs and give comments. So if you reckon a song is dispensable, or perhaps essential for the tape, please let me know. I can send you the songs via the web or you can come to my place and listen or get a CDR from me.

The plan is to sell my tape at the forthcoming Liquid Sky concert. For those of you who have spent the last weeks in a skip zone, this is a trio consisting of me and the dynamic duo. We will play along 6 surrealistic movies. The time is 22 hundered september the 20th, the good ol' culture night of Lund. The place is Skissernas Museum, near the University Library. Flyers will be printed tomorrow (Saturday) and me and the D.D. would very much appreciate if you took some time to help us spread these flyers. Perhaps the good people of Munka-Ljungby are interested in avant-garde shit? Guess you get the picture... If you have any tips of cafés, clubs etc. where our flyers would enhance the surroundings, be kind post to the blog.

I hope you will all attend this once-in-a-lifetime gig. I can't guarantee that things will boil, but I most certainly hope so. Rehearsals have been both miserable and productive, so no one knows for sure how the whole thing will sound in the end... We might also be selling Liquid Sky tapes this evening, as a little memory of the venue.

Glad you spent some of your valuable time on the S.T.T. blog! Check back soon for more news on the progress in the Öresund Region!

Reporting from Munka Lungby

2008-09-09T22:47:00.003+02:00

My first couple of weeks at the school have gone by fast, although they've been on some intense shit. The early mornings are still kind of killing me, but I've managed, and had a lot of fun too.
A lot of the things I've done here I haven't got photos of yet, so I'll be back shortly with some more updates. I borrowed a camera this evening though and here's what's been cracking lately:

This is a pencil study of Nicola's face, done as preparation for an oil portrait I'll be painting of her. The assignment is to somehow work with simplification in the paintings, so that's what I'm going to go for, at least when it comes to the clothing. Might be interesting to use more details on the flesh parts of the picture and make the rest as mere fields of colour.

This is Nicola working on a portrait of me, also on the simplification tip. I really like how this is looking so far, very solid somehow. I'm not good at being a model though, after twenty minutes I'm falling asleep.

A couple of days back we had a drawing class with a nude model. I think I enjoy doing the quick drawings the most, like these four shown here.

So yeah, that's what I got right now. Check out the schools blog too.

Weekly Camu Tao: "I'm an alcoholic my nigga, i'll split your face."

/ mvhtheo

A Critial History of Turk hits

2008-09-03T08:48:00.003+02:00

Introduction
The so called "Turk hits", a juvenile Internet phenomenon of the early 21st century, has recently had a quite surprising comeback among certain groups of intellectuals. We of Swedish Technology weren't late to discover this trend. As I did some further research, I was surprised to find that no critical study of Turk hits has ever been carried out. Below I present the result of several months of research and critical thinking. Hopefully, this will prove a useful resource for future Turkhitsologists.

A disclaimer
Some might argue that the list-arranged nature of this article hardly qualifies it as science. I beg to disagree. I have chosen to present the results of my research as a list, since this makes it much more blog-friendly. All facts and statements presented are the results of rigorous analysis.

#5. Uncle Banana 82 - "Ull i min soffa" (2000)
A controversial choice, some might think, though it is my firm belief that this is one of those rare masterpieces which it will take some time or people to discover. Naysayers will argue that the song's only merit is the animations. Granted, Ull i min soffa is accompanied by what is perhaps the greatest animations of any Turk hit, but it is far richer than that. Who can forget such immortal phrases as "En bit lövbiff. En bit lövbiff. En bit lövbiff. En bit lövbiff." or "Väldigt ren! Ouäääää!!!"? It is alway nice when the authors of Turk hits are forced to invent new words. How much poorer would not the Swedish language be without the verb "att walla ner"? We are without a doubt dealing with poets of the first order. However, the one most memorable line of the song belongs in the Pantheon of Turk hits, namely "Ull i min soffa är grejer sa de" [roughly translated as "wool in my couch is the thing, they said"]. How true. Who is anyone to argue with "them"?

#4. Alleks and Robbo - "Sarrmajjan" (2003?)
It truly hurts me to see how far down the list this song has fallen. Only a couple of months back this was, to my eyes, the undisputed masterpiece of Turk hits, towering far above all others. But alas, times change. For one thing, I could not foresee the Indian monster which would push aside his Arabian sister (see next entry). Also, I was probably underestimating a few classics.

However, considering the wealth of Turk hits, a 4th place is by no means something to be ashamed of. Quite to the contrary, Sarrmajjan is, to make it brief, quite simply a masterpiece. After a rather slow start ("biiiiil/Gunde gillar Lars sen sista/Jag ska nu ge nästa regi/Ser du in här se in/När dé é synd/ser ni Sarr-maja/då går Jari typ/ner nääääär/"), things sure get going, in what is without a doubt the best flow in any Turk hit ("Det blir guldmenyn/Ja då arme du/Det blir guldmadam/Eller hur senil/Har du käk med dig/Medicin med dig/etc").

Despite these masterful lines, the song does have a drawback, and one that is bigger than one might initially be inclined to think. The animations are poor. Really poor, like virtually non-existant. Had Sarrmajjan been accompanied by animations of the same calibre as those of Ull i min soffa instead of the despicable abstract crap which is now present, it would indeed, at least to this observer, mark the high point in the history of the phenomenon.

#3. Sonadar9(?) - "Dålig mat" (2007?)
He appeared out of nowhere, effetively eliminating most of the contestors, like a nucler explosion. The discovery of Dålig mat introduced a new paradigm of Turk hits, succesfully destabilizing the previous era of Middle Eastern dominance. For this was a beast of Indian origin, perhaps the area where a breakthrough was the least expected.

Superficially a mere Bollywood rendering of Michael Jackson's Thriller (the music, by the way, is far superior to that of the original), once you dig a bit deeper, Dålig mat is far more than that. While this setting does insure a few hilarities (just imagine an Indian take on the black, white, male, female, young and old zombie!) the real treasures are to be found, as usual, in the subtleties of language. The first shout of "Dålig maaaaaat!" comes across as rather surprising, but then it leads up to the far more shocking, though nevertheless profound truth that "Killar killar killar/Gillar gillar gillar/Dålig mat". While the protagonist of Dålig mat is at times far from eloquent (what the hell is "Cash mora kaka lite igen/Sjyst jag får" supposed to mean?), he makes up for this with a few short but striking phrases, the supreme examples of which are the powerful "NU SER VI HÄR", and the odd "Morgan bor där mormor sa". Taking the protagonist's look and his ability to dance in consideration as well, it should hardly come as a surprise that Dålig mat is awarded the highly prestigious no. 3 spot.

#2. Anonymous - "Fiskpinnar" (2003?)
At a mere 45 seconds, this is by far the briefest entry on our list. It is also the most intense. The title is very promising on its own (one of the oldest tricks of the trade is to make reference to things very Swedish in character, i.e. the "Gunde" and "Lars" of Sarrmajjan) and the song sure does deliver. "Ja slyna", the singer begins, then going on to state what is most likely his dinner of choice: "Några fiskpinnar". "Vem är du?", the singer rhetorically asks. The answer is obvious. "Kannibal". He then returns to the character of "slynan", perhaps his wife. "Ja slynan bar schalett". So far so good. However: "ja slynan bär overall". Shocking indeed! She has changed her Islamic veil for the secular overall, certainly not befitting the wife of such a grand patriarch! Having been provoked by his wife in such a fashion, the singer is then, quite confusingly, found in an ecstatic state of mind: "Halleljuah! Aah det är fiskpinnar" We may never know what accounts for this change, and the last line certainly doesn't shed any light on the question: "Jag måste välja samuraj". This, one of the most enigmatic lines in all Turk hits, has inspired numerous commentators, none of them coming up with a plausible solution. It remains a mystery, and this is perhaps where its greatness resides.

#1. Patrik Nyberg, Johan Gröndahl and Pet Bagge - "Hatten är din" (2000)
If you are in any way familiar with Turk hits, you should have expected this winner. What can I say? Surprises are nice, though this particular choice should be pretty unarguable. Hatten är din set the standard for all future Turk hits with regards to anything from animations to lyrics to the song itself. Who could possibly forget the passionate cry of the bearded man (Åååååhhh-åhåhåhå), or the energetic dancing crowd (Lalalalalala...)? These are perhaps some of the foremost artistic achievements of the early 21st century. The genius of Hatten är din resides in a delicate blend of all aspects, not found in any other Turk hit. Unlike Ull i min soffa or Sarrmajjan, exceling in animations and lyrics respectively, Hatten är din is a masterwork with regards to both of these factors. On top of this, Hatten är din is also great considered as music qua music, regardless or lyrcal or animated content. It is a sublime unity of this trinity, reaching its peak in the following line, repeated twice: "Välte hatten i Berts cola au lait". Rarely has an Internet phenomenon been so moving.

And, perhaps being aware of its genius, the song comments on itself: "Alla vet varför och allt blir perfekt".

With that, we leave the are of Turk hits. I hope you've learned something.

/Aron

Got $3000000?

2008-08-26T16:37:00.000+02:00

The Archive from Sean Dunne on Vimeo.

Snapshots of the past moth

2008-08-12T21:58:00.007+02:00

One of the ideas that were behind the trip through Europe that Aron and I undertook this past month was that of artistic input/output. With notepads in hands we set out to take part of some of the finest sights this continent has to offer, hoping to fill said notepads with our impressions and thoughts.
Partially I guess one kind of killed the other. If you contantly stuff your head with new powerful impressions, it's hard to truly settle down and create something. So basically what I did was to just portray what I saw, which really is what I do otherwise aswell. So.
Aron was of course my foremost subject:

This was drawn with a set of colour pencils, right by a canal close to Amsterdams central station. The light of that city was truly inspiring, and so was trying to capture it with those colour pencils.

Drawn in Haarlem, a smaller city nearby Amsterdam, I could have detailed the background a lot more in this one. I really like how the face came out though.

This is Aron at Venice's central station, waiting for the train to Ljubljana. Drawn with a set of regular pencils and a white one.
Now one of the most, purely visually, impressive sights of this trip was the scenery around and on Lake Bled (Slovenia), which also inspired a poem Aron has posted here. There was, as you may know, a church on the island in the middle of this big lake, surrounded by treecovered hills. This is my take on the scene:

At the Leopold Museum in Vienna, Austria, I had the opportuniy to copy some of Egon Schiele's drawings. Schiele is an artist I really like, plus a fantastic draughtsman. Gustav Klimt's superior, according to Klimt himself. Copying his drawings was a great experience. It felt funny how his lines seemed so natural to draw, so essential somehow. It felt almost like I had drawn these drawings before.
These are the ones I think turned out best:

That's all for now, thanks for the kindness and shit in response to my previous posts.

Weekly quote:

"I'm gonna tear this room down with my two bare...minds"
-Camu Tao

/Theo

EP report, the books, drawing etc.

2008-08-12T20:29:00.008+02:00

Dear friends!

My (Frans) summer has been highly productive, although I haven't been contributing much to the blog. Main reasons for this are I have spent a lot of time in summer houses in Hässleholm and Karlskrona. I have been really busy with my music making, though. The idea of a demo CD or EP appears clearer for each tune I nearly finish. Many of my songs tend to lean towards sample/loop-based hip hop beats, but I intend to record some more or less improvised tunes over guitar à la "Rain" and "Moynaq". I will try to crossfade between the beat-based songs and the more meditative ones, and hope that the overall flow will appear pleasant for the listener. Hopefully, the clash between electronic black music and guitar-driven folk music wont be that bad.

I've been chasing sample material all summer. It's good to use a program where you can manipulate mp3 files. I use Ableton Live a lot, but for basslines and other synths, I turn to Reason, a reliable old friend. Torbjörn Lundquist, Chick Corea, Earth,Wind & Fire are some artits I've incorporated in music, as well as Freda Payne, Cal Tjader and Ornette Coleman. I've got intentions to find saxophone solos to spice up my songs.

I have also been sketching on some artwork for the EP, inspired by medieval art. So, the plan I guess, is to post the demo to some minor record companies on both sides of the ocean and hope for positive answers. By September 15 some 20 packages containing my material will be shipped to the appropriate labels.

New songs will appear soon at http://www.myspace.com/fransswahn.

Cleaning out my room at my fathers place, I found lots of drawings from my early teens and forward. Since I rarely draw at all nowadays, I reckon it might be of interest if I post some of the pictures here at Swedish Technology. I'll be back tomorrow with updates on this.

Er... Shit, it's hard to write things that are supposed to be all official... You try to sound professional, but then you realize your not such a good writer, nor speaker, and your English is terrible. It costs to be anti-social.

Good thing happened the other week. When in Karlskrona, we got hold of heaps of paperbacks, most of them essential classics. I brought home some 30 Dostoevskys, Gorkijs, Hesses, Östergrens, Vians, Zolas and Goethes. I've never been much of a reader, but this is a sign that it's time for me to pick up the book, and gradually also the pen and paper. Poetry, reflections on life... Etc. Why did I ever stop immortalizing the every day moments and unusual occurrenceses of my life? This blog is a good thing. A tool for reaching and discovering our goals. We are young, we have ideals. Now let's get up and let our voices be heard!

Thank you Aron and Theo, for posting poems and paintings. Seeing the work of friends really encourages me in my own creative development.

Frans

Två (numera 3!) Europadikter

2008-08-10T15:02:00.003+02:00

En månads tågluff resulterade dessvärre bara i tre ganska korta lyriska produktioner, vilket å andra sidan innebär att jag var ganska upptagen med att se saker. Kanske kommer det mer när jag hunnit smälta och bearbeta intrycken lite. Här kommer i alla fall det som blev av:

Amsterdam 14/7 -08

Solen har ett öga för kanalstäder;
I Amsterdam är hon vattnets fyrtorn.
På gatan möter jag en blick:
Rembrandts, från ett tidigt självporträtt.
De trånga gränderna knuffar upp själen på ett moln.
Några minuter därifrån de gröna savannerna
Och man önskar sig vara landskapsmålare.

Bledsjön 28/7 -08

Klockans eko är bergens rop.
Ett lågmält mullrande
För att väcka slumrande gudar.
Från klippvägg till trädtopp,
Över sjön vandrar ett hemligt språk.
Hur talade naturen
Innan människan
Kunde bära hennes budskap?

Palatinen
Hemkommen besöker resan mig.
Ljusen som inte sken för 2000 år sen
Synes mig plötsligt starkare
Än då de ledde min nattliga färd.
I Sveriges mörker slås jag
Av minnets outsinliga krafter

Alla monument reses i trots mot tiden
Men visar till sist att de, likt tiden,
Segrar över människan, sin skapare,
I en utdragen gladiatorkamp
Som inte alltid kan fortlöpa.

På avstånd marschmusik,
Trumman kommer hitåt…

Jag är nog mest nöjd med nr.2 - den förra känns aningen sökt. Jag kan även tillägga att jag också fortfarande velar lite vad gäller radindelningen för alla dikterna. Nr.2 tillkom på plats vid Bledsjön i Slovenien, där jag satt på en bänk vid vattenkanten och spanade ut över den ensamma ön som ligger mitt i sjön. Plötsligt börjar klockan i den lilla, men ståtliga kyrka, som mirakulöst nog är placerad på själva ön, att slå. Det är kyrkans interaktion med de omgärdande bergsväggarna som är diktens utgångspunkt.

Nr.1 är ett impressionistiskt försök att fånga en flyktig stad. Ibland är jag nöjd med den. För det mesta inte.

Den sista - nytillskottet - började ta form då jag promenerade upp på Palatinen, kullen som Rom skall ha grundats på. Jag slogs av en märklig känsla; känslan av ett väldigt närvarande förflutet. Jag antecknade några fragment, men mycket mer blev det inte. Några dagar efter att jag hade kommit hem till Lund insåg jag plötsligt, i ett sådant ögonblick som kommer över en ibland, minnets enorma förmåga. Jag gillar hur det spatiala hoppet mellan Rom och Lund sker samtidigt som hela den temporala dimensionen är närvarande. Det är iallafall denna effekt jag har försökt uppnå. Jag är också ganska nöjd med det ambivalenta slutet. Men nu har jag nog sagt för mycket. Läs själva istället vetja.

Ni som läser - kommentera gärna!

/Aron

I love dublab

2008-08-09T05:28:00.002+02:00

So dublab and creative commons have a new art project where a bunch of audio loops and and also record label formed artwork is released on this sight http://intoinfinity.org/ and it's all open for any one to download as they want and make new music and art with it, if i understand everything correctly. So go make som music thats what I'm gonna do.

/Jonas Edenbrandt

SURPRISE HELLO FROM BUDAPEST!!!!

2008-08-05T17:16:00.000+02:00

Hello,

Please update.

Thx.

/Aron & Theo

I'm back!

2008-07-17T05:22:00.002+02:00

So I'm in Washington DC over the summer. I've had a few relaxing days here that i spent making music. I'm currently exploring different sounds and ideas wich means that i start alot of stuff and don't really finish anything. I managed to finish one track though, it's not that amazing it's mostly just giving a hiphop beat a try but using sounds that might fit better in a techno track. I don't have any good speakers and the only software I have is reason 3 so thats what i blame the poor mixing on. Well any one the tracks up on my myspace so check it out.

www.myspace.com/jonasedenbrandt

I'm planning on finishing a few more tracks that have started to take shape the even though they mostly are experiments. What I have so far is a Basic Channel type of thing wich sounds a bit like some of my older stuff, two ambient tracks, and a very wierd thing that i don't have a name for.

Thats all from DC

/Jonas Edenbrandt

Portaits of Pontus

2008-07-08T00:03:00.009+02:00

Not counting myself, my good friend Pontus is probably the person I've portrayed the most during the last year. He's not just a good friend but a good musician and songwriter too and you should check his myspace out, the songs of course, but also the concert dates, because he and his band really are something.

Acrylics and oilpastel on black paper, about 28*18 cm

This is the oldest one of the portraits I'm posting here, probably more or less exactly one year old. I painted it in a period when I was really into creating shape and shadows in this kind of backwards way, where they are accomplished by leaving the backound blank. This was very much inspired by the artist Francis Bacon. Bacon is great, check out his myspace.

Spraypaint and oilpastels on black paper, approx. 50*25 cm.

Did this one after a photo. A more shapely approach I guess. I was into spraycans and the types of effects seen here at this point, and luckily my brother had left a huge- ass box of them in my room.

Spraypaint, oilpastels and Posca- pencil on black paper, approx. 50*25 cm.

Done the same day as the above one. I think the colours came out a whole lot better in this one.

Pencil on paper, A3- size.

So, yeah, my days as a tele- researcher are coming to a close. Sitting in front of a screen and talking to people who mostly treat like you're a real pain in the ass, six hours a day is not a lot of fun. I quickly realized that the whole challenge of this kind of labour is escaping the here and now as effectively as possible. A great way to do that is drawing. These are some the drawings I've done at work recently.

These were all done with a ball-point pen on A4- paper. The top two are drawn from reproductions of paintings in a book about Rembrandt, a self portait and a portrait of his second wife Hendrijke Stoffels. Notice here disfigured arm, what a freak. The bottom one is a selfportrait.
Long post. But I know you want it!

/Theo

Suprize!!!

2008-07-03T01:07:00.002+02:00

Greetings people of the earth!

Frans here, delivering some shocking news: I will not play with Josef Bergmark at the Stapelbädd venue. It appears there has been some kind of trouble with the booking, and we have simply not been booked for a concert. This means that the summer has reached yet another, unexplored level of misery, something we doubted was possible. It seems my angst account has been flooded since I received the encouraging news. So, there you have something nice to reflect over, chilling on the beach or Ariman or where ever you "folks" hang out.

Better news then? Of course! A brand new constellation has been created, consisting of me, Josef, William and Fredrik. Genre? Non-guitar driven rock music. OK, I know rock is a word that leaves a bitter taste in your mouth, but one day we all need to go back to the roots, to see what the heck we need to do to continue working with music. Because it ain't all that easy to keep yourself going. Plans to send demos to record companies off course seem quite intimidating, but man! have you ever tried making a demo that you're somewhat satisfied with? No, didn't think so either. Well, this upcoming music is meant to be both meditative and up-beat. Or something.

Well, I hope things will boil when I return from vacation around 24 July. And I hope that you, our eager readers have got the power to wait some more weeks for a sample or two. And I also hope to get rich and famous, pretty soon. Is that too bold a demand?

//Frans, currently practically living in my own disgust

A few recent self- portraits.

2008-06-18T22:42:00.007+02:00

Hey, I'm Theo Zeylon and I'm new on the blog-scene. Hopefully though, I will post some of my art here from time to time, along with comments on it or other art- related ramblings.
I'm going to art- school this fall, so I've been visiting a few different schools lately. The visits, the whole environment of the schools and talking to the teachers had me thinking about why I make art, the purpose for me personally. Or maybe it was just general anxiety around actually having to do something serious creatively that had me thinking about it. Or both.
Of course there are many different purposes for doing things creatively. Understanding things better, passing the time, that "great idea that you just have to do" and so on. But when it comes down to it art has to be fun or otherwise fullfilling in some unexplainable way. Inspired, for short.
So then, what is fun? Well, first of all what is fun is doing things, not thinking about them endlessly before and after you do them. Secondly, at least to me, the element of surprise or chance is pretty necessary. Those things you didn't really know how they would turn out, that have you kind of spellbound while you're doing them and surprised when you're done.
These are some thoughts that struck me, and kind of thrilled me, and that I felt I wanted to make into standards.
Here are a few self- portraits I've done during the last couple of weeks.

Oil-pastels, acrylics, pencil, Posca- markers on cardboard. 70*50 cm.

Colour markers on paper. A4- sized.

Oil pastels, pencils, black marker on paper. A4- sized.

Pencils, pastels and white pencil on paper. A4- sized.

Ballpoint pen on paper. Pretty small.

I drew that last one at work (tele- researcher), hence the despair in my eyes.
In other news, underground rapper Camu Tao passed away recently. Sad of course, but also strangely kind of a reason to get into his stuff. He was a part of the groups SA Smash, Night Hawks, and Central services along with artists Metro, Cage and El-P respectively.

That's all for now, thanks.

Some intriguing new releases

2008-06-07T17:38:00.002+02:00

Hi everyone, this is my first post ever at Swedish Technology, though hopefully I will become an active contributor. Here are some new releases I found interesting. You can also read these reviews, along with a bunch of other interesting texts, at my webpage.

Robert Ashley - Tap Dancing in the Sand (2008)
This record collects five pieces by Ashley, all performed by the Dutch ensemble MAE. Mostly famous for his casual, conversational "operas", Robert Ashley is perhaps one of the more well-known figures of today's American avant-garde. The title track, composed in 2004, is an example of such an opera, consisting of Ashley reading a text over a repetitive musical background of piano and strings.

Philip Jeck - Sand (2008)
Sand is a sample-heavy album of digital ambience, which sometimes bursts out into Merzbow-ish collages of chaos. In lyrical tracks such as the organic and fragile Fanfare Forward, Jeck seems to be making a statement about humanity in general. Other tracks present intriguing textures, which try to hide bits and pieces of melody deep below. The multi-layered textures of Fanfare's Over evoke the blissful radioactivity of some of the most experimental German rock music of the early 70's, namely Krautrock by Faust.
All in all, it is probably a minor work, suffering from way to much filler material, a problem that is ever-present in the age of cheap CD's and digital distribution.

Meredith Monk - Impermanence (2008)
Meredith Monk, that brilliant voice behind such masterworks as Tablet (1977) and Dolmen Music (1979), is back with yet another album. Her vocal experiments - acrobatic, schizofrenic and childish - are still here, though this time she puts a lot more emphasis on the backing instruments than she has before. The piece is scored for eight voices, piano, keyboard, marimba, vibraphone, percussion, violin and winds. The album was conceived after the sudden death of the composer's partner, and as such it is heavily concerned with aging and death, though for the most part the mood remains meditative rather than harrowing, except perhaps in the desperate Totentanz. As she often does when at her best, Monk manages to combine the personal and the universal in an impressive synthesis. By the end, in Mieke's Melody Nr 5, Monk has achieved that delicate balance between grief and acceptance: the voices fade out, a solemn piano accompanied by a vibraphone take over. And then the silence.

Spring Heel Jack - Songs and Themes (2008)
In the humble opinion of the present writer, one of the most interesting acts of the new millenium so far, has been Spring Heel Jack, consisting of John Coxon and Ashley Wales. Starting out in the mid-90s as a somewhat innovative drum'n'bass act, the duo then moved into more abstract soundscapes with their 2000 release Disappeared, as an element of vanguard jazz was introduced into the composition. That album had an intensity and powerfulness rarely seen in music today. With Masses (2001) their transition to avant-garde jazz was complete. Backed by an extremely impressive ensemble of jazz musicians, the duo concocted one of the most innovative fusions in modern music. Their next album, Amassed (2002) was perhaps an even better take on the genre they invented. While The Sweetness of the Water (2004) was probably a disappointment when seen in the light of their high standard, I was nevertheless very much looking forward to their next release.
Like some of their previous pieces, Songs and Themes has a quality akin to modern chamber music. The recording collects yet another impressive array of jazz musicians, with trumpeter Roy Campbell and saxophonist John Tchicai taking the lead. Some of the slow-moving tracks, such as Silvertone, featuring John Tchicai on bass clarinet and John Coxon on violin, acquire an almost spiritual quality. The electronics are mostly pushed into the background, as Wales glues together the different snippets of improvisation rather smoothly. The mood is often ghastly and unstable, as in the extended track At Long Last, when the instruments of Campbell and Tchicai meet with digital glitches. 1,000 Yards even makes use of a dissonant electric guitar, while the closer Garlands features a classy trumpet.
Perhaps not up to the quality of some of their previous releases, Songs and Themes is nevertheless a highly enjoyable experience, well worth listening to for those who are into modern experimental music.

That's all for now.

/Aron

”Get them before they get all trendy and lame”

2008-05-22T14:19:00.001+02:00

I was just on www.pitchforkmedia.com to check out what new records were out, something i do every morning. Enough about that what i wanted to write about is not my morning routine but a commercial I saw on pitchfork. The commercial was for shoes and said ”Get them before they get all trendy and lame”. It struck me as kind of od but then when I thought about it this is exactly what fashion is about these days. It's fashionable to be out of fashion and it's trendy to not be trendy. This strikes me at first as something very postmodern just as kitch becomes chick as popular culture becomes high culture, the social status of being uncool becomes cool. I took a look on wikipedia to see if maybe it's not at all a postmodern thing. It's seems that fashion for the upper classes of the oxident in history has been something very important to be up to date with. It seems as well as the uppe class vas very aware that they dressed in the same way and took some pride in this. In the begining of the 1800 the upper class at least thought that they dressed the same way all over the oxident. Something that can be seen as something similar to the trend of being un trendy is that the lower class tried there best to immitate the upper class fashion, this irritated the upper class wich led to fast changes in fashion so the lower class could not keep up. Today when class is not as big of a seperation of young people (i am very aware of there still being class differences) instead you cultureral capital is gained from being first with a fadd when people immitate what a cooler group has already done they do what the lower class did to the upper class during the 1700s and 1800s. If you want to dig deeper in cultural capital and subcultural capital with young kids i deeply recomend the book Club Cultures by Sarah Thornton. The book is about the rave culture in England during the 90's.

Well thats all i had to say im working on some tracks but I have problem finishing tracks instead I just start new projects but hopefully I'll finish something soon.

/Jonas

2008-05-19T17:57:00.003+02:00

Good songs:

The Apartments - Help
Bad Brains - Stay close to me
Violent Femmes - Blister in the sun
Ali Farka Toure - Bakoytereye
Tortoise - Speakeasy

Frans

A new year's promise

2008-05-17T17:42:00.005+02:00

Hello all eager readers!

Over two Ariman cups of tea and coffee, me and Aron had a conversation this afternoon. We talked about the passed times, regretting all our mistakes. Many of these stories included alcoholic beverages. We agreed that something has to be done. There is a strong glorification going on about the surge of alcohol. It seems to be a deep rooted epidemic spreading over the western civilization. In the mid-teens, Norse kids encourage each other in drinking beer, wine and liquor. Maybe this tradition dates back to our viking ancestors, maybe we have the forerunners of French decadence to thank for the never ending "Livet är en fest" mentality. Anyway, we mourned the many hours of the last five years or so we've lost fooling around with the likes of Dionysus. There could have been many fine things created in all those drunk and hangover hours. There never seemed to be a line we could cross, we could never go to far. It was all like some Hakan Hellstrom song, discotheques, trams and broken hearts all in a drunken HAZE!

As I just wrote, ART could have been produced. Instead our humor turned indifferent and internal. Our friendship became based around parties and getting drunk. We started measuring fun in how drunk you could get, how stoopid things you could do and still live. We simply forgot the original human spirit we once carried within ourselves since childhood. We never aimed at discovering our true artistic potential, and above all: we didn't interact with each other. In between parties each man huddled in his own trench, cutting of all IRL and sober contact with his friends. This seems a very21th century phenomenon, the computerized life extinguishing pure human fantasy.

Next weekend me and Aron will be arranging a banquet. The rules are simple: all guests are to be intoxicated by the ideas and dreams of the others. No booze in to be taken part of. Cooking exiting food, listening to good music and possibly watching a movie by the end of the evening will be enough to please the participants in this experiment. Our hope is that all concerned will agree that finding substitutes for alcohol is a fair existence. That the hard partying of the twenties will be replaced by true stimulus. That only having some drinks about once a month is a far healthier life, both for us and our wallets.

This is something to believe in. It may seem boring or even Christian to you people. But have yourselves a thinker. Listening to music while *not* stoned... if you get the picture. Sick and tired of this end- & useless intoxication. Let's try to set a good example!

//Frans, brooding deep inside what's left of my moral

Stapelfestivalen

2008-05-07T08:35:00.005+02:00

Great news for summer! Frans and Josef will most probably perform a live set at the so called Stapelfestivalen. This festival takes place in Västra Hamnen (the West Harbor), Malmoe between July 24 and July 26. Exact date and place will be published as soon as we get to know it ourselves. Originally, Cloud Study was the band signed up for this event, but as Fredrik will be having a family vacation at that moment, Frans will take his place. This means we probably wont be calling our selves Cloud Study, instead perhaps Swahn Study or Frans Cloud, we'll see bout that. We'll perform tracks from both the Cloud Study and Frans Swahn portfolios, and we intend to blend the songs to a minor marathon. If you want to see the first performance of your lifetime (I guarantee you will will bring you more) come to the West Harbor around July 25. See you there!

Thoughts for Summer

2008-05-06T10:30:00.019+02:00

This is Frans behind the keyboard, reporting on the progress of my music making. The last weeks I have been occupied by things that weren't of musical matter. On my spare time I have been able to make some music, though... I have come up with a couple of songs, the best I have uploaded on my mypace (myspace.com/fransswahn). The songs are based around samples of jazz, funk and rock songs by such great names as Bobby Hutcherson (Verse from the album Stick Up!), the Meters (Stormy from the album The Meters), Television (Prove It (1974 version) from the bootleg record Double Exposure) and an Esquivel song that turned into some kind of dub. Other artists I have sampled in songs that are still in progress are Horace Silver, Thelonious Monk, Chick Corea, Astrud Gilberto and Circle Takes The Square. I've made attempts at combining samples from different genres into funky hip hop beats.

Ableton Live has been a close companion, although I doubted the reliability of the program when it all of a sudden gave up on me some weeks ago. However, I managed to get back on track and now I have begun the recording of a new wave song à la Pylon, a pastiche of a 50's ballad and an advanced chord progression bossa song.

Making music with the BMS (myspace.com/brokenmixersessions) is oddly enough still a thing I like, and long to do. Alas, teaming up with'em hasn't been easy. I enjoy the solo music making. The problem i that if I get stuck in the middle of a tune there is no one else there to help me out. Therefore some song tend to never be finished. Oh, thats a lie; none of my songs are finished. I dream of putting 5 of my best songs onto a record and mail it to producers, record companies and festivals. My only problem is that I never get satisfied with my results. This summer I must make myself, as we say in Sweden, get my thumb out of my butt, and JUST DO IT!!! I really want to do some concerts, either with or without the people of BMS. Once we talked about throwing a party somewhere in Lund and performing our songs. Perhaps this plan is still a plan. We'll see when Josef and Fredrik return from their two weeks in Thailand. Our friend William has been employed as poster paster by the Malmö club Inkonst. For us, this could mean possibilities to perform at one of Skånes best stages.

This fall we have a gig, improvising music to Victor Sjöströms film Körkarlen. This will be an interesting experience, since none of us has done anything like this before.

I'm visiting Adam in Stockholm this weekend, and I really look forward to meeting the hip-ass people of our capitol. I'm so tired of this village I could die. In June me, William and some other people are going to Berlin for ten days to delight ourselves at Berghain etc. Yeah! After that I might train down to the French Riviera via Amsterdam, along the Rhine, Alsace/Lorraine and Geneva/Montreaux. Trips to the family in Varberg and Karlskrona are compulsory in July. Can't see any time for work or music, YUK!

This blog is a super swell idea. We are a couple of guys who need a place to post our musical and artistic ideas and tales of our experiences. Unfortunately, the sole participants so far has been me and Jonaz. This means that the goal of A Swedish Taste of Technology is yet to be fulfilled. I hope for this blog to be of great use for us, and other readers. Please spread the word about this dawning avant-garde movement. It's about time that Sweden sees a full artistic movement of genuine quality. Especially in these times of icons like Amanda Jenssen and repetition of retro-guaranteed-to-make-U-dance-"new wave"-ish and French house music. Man, I'm bitter!

Well, just so you know it: Things WILL actually boil here at Swedish Technology. Whether it will be me or we who make this joint jump only time can tell. I hope for a posse of never before beheld magnitude. Aiigght???

Frans

Crash

2008-04-29T11:58:00.010+02:00

My computers hard drive crashed this weekend, this means 85gb of music is lost and also about 50 of my own tracks. Not all of them where finished and some of them i didn't have any intentions to finish. Still it really sucks. On the upside the warranty covered it so i'll get a new hard drive in a week or so. In the mean time I won't have any programs to make music. I'm playing the piano some instead but when i get everything set up I'm gonna get started on some new tracks. Without any software to make music I found my self drawing in paint the other day so I'll just post the results of that.

/Jonas

An update

2008-04-21T03:42:00.003+02:00

We've been a bit to quiet on the blog since we started it, but that dosen't meen we've been idle all together. We're all working away on our soloprojects Franz and the Cloud Study have new tracks up on their myspace pages and I'm working on some new tracks.

I've had a few things in school that kept me busy for some time but now I'm back on track. Just like Franz and Cloud Study I've started to use samples in my music. I've found two fine loops from two swedish legends, Bo Hansson and Jan Johansson that I'm buidling brand new tracks around. Hopefully I'll have them finished in a few weeks. Also I have plans on finishing a minimal and a dub track that are purely electronic without samples that have both been on ice for some time.

We don't have a jamsession planned with all of the Broken Mixer Sessions but i think we're all into having one soon. So when we have a weekend where no one has to work or study we'll probably get together and record a track.

Also I talked to Franz some today he told me that we might be playing music to a silent movie that film studion here in Lund will be showing in the fall. Franz also mentioned that Josef might be playing a festival this summer but he'll have to get back to you about that with more info.

Well thats all i have for now but I'll be back and hopefully the rest of the crew will as well.

/Jonas

BMS lives!!!

2008-03-10T18:27:00.002+01:00

Light bulbs

After a long, cold, idle winter, the remnants of what once was the Broken Mixer Sessions had decided to reunite. On March 7 Fredrik Gisselsson and Josef Bergmark of CloudStudy teamed up with their old affiliates Jonas Edenbrandt and Frans Karlsson for a jam at Josef’s place. There had been a slight change of instruments. Fredrik and Josef had switched their strings for a MicroKorg and a Sp-303, while Jonas had brought abandoned his bass for an Edirol midiclav, which he used with Reason 4 on Josef’s laptop. Frans used reason 3 on his computer and his NordLead as a midiclav. The idea was to irate a moody, sedative tune using glass and piano samples which Josef had recorder earlier, pad sounds played by Fredrik, warped glass, synth and Lee Perry samples and Meters-drums from Frans’ laptop and a range of ambient synth sounds created by Jonas.

Setting up the instruments was an easy job, as was structuring the song. Recording was done in two takes, as they felt satisfied with the second and Fredrik had to go to work. The hard part occurred when Fredrik had left the building. They had used a Sansui porta studio dating from the late 80’s which made it easy to record and mix the channels. As soon as they felt the volume, EQ and panning pleasing they decided to digitalize the music. This turned out to be one of the greatest nightmares ever, as the signal in kept distorting and clipping no matter which computer or audio recording program we used. They had about lost all hope to multiply the track from the tape (the song had been down-pitched which meant could not be listened to in anything but the porta itself) when Frans finally managed to decrease the line in volume, and thus record the song onto his computer.

They named the song “Light bulb”, aiming at giving more attention to a great invention.

On their way back to Lund, Frans and Jonas experienced the bus suddenly colliding with something. When the driver stepped on the gas pedal, the bus wouldn’t exceed 10 km/h and oh, the bus was also rapidly filled with smoke which smelt of burnt rubber. Panic broke out among the passengers, and after a while the lot stood outside on the sidewalk. As the driver tried to bandage the scrubs of the bus, a rumor was spread among the passengers. Apparently, the bus had collided with a Badger!!! Bear in mind that most of the passengers were drunk people who were going home after a fancy club evening in the metropolis of Malmö.

Now the song floats around cyber space (http://www.myspace.com/brokenmixersessions) and if I’m not mistaken, it has been played circa 41 times. It seems the Mixer Sessions need to find more friends to post bulletins

to. How else will our music (attempting to release itself from the commercial rubbish that attacks us every day) reach new people? I guess our music has a purpose. It might be to multiply. Hope y’all enjoy it!