After three albums fronted by the charismatic Jan Jenko, it was all change in 2016 for TORUL on the appropriately titled ‘Reset’, with the introduction of new vocalist Maj Valerij.
To trail a new album coming later this year, the Slovenian combo are back with a brand new single ‘Explain’ which showcases some grouchy bass guitar syncopating off a solid beat. Over smatterings of weeping electronics, Valerij explains to his listeners that “She’s coming again in my dream”. In the mysterious visual accompaniment directed by Aleš Bravničar, a disused airfield is used as a backdrop for its leading lady Tina Kopušar to roam in search of life, or is it?
Valerij smokes a pipe intently and stares her out; is he a ghost from a bygone conflict or disaster? The aeronautical relics from The Cold War rusting from abandonment might be a clue… but as bandmates Torul Torulsson and Borut Dolenec make cameos, it’s difficult to fathom! Explain!
With Valerij now fully ensconced into the fold, it would appear that TORUL have survived the departure of Jan Jenko, with ‘Explain’ capturing the intensity of their previous work, a template that was inspired by the likes of THE CURE and TEARS FOR FEARS who the band have covered on previous albums.
The download bundle comes with three remixes, the best of which comes from Germany synthpop trio BEBORN BETON who add a rather wonderful pulsating electronic disco feel to proceedings.
IONNALEE is both a new start and the continuation of a story that began with IAMAMIWHOAMI.
After three enticing bodies of work in ‘Bounty’, ‘Kin’ and ‘Blue’ since 2009 with producer Claes Björklund, Swedish singer / songwriter / producer / filmmaker Jonna Lee presents her solo album ‘Everyone Afraid To Be Forgotten’.
“It’s the result of a period of frustration and anxiety” she explained about her artistic journey, “I collaborated mostly with myself and pushed through from co-producer to producer, experimenting with the mixing of organic and electronic genres, moods, soundscapes and beats, putting my voice in focus”
But Claes Björklund has not gone entirely with the self-produced album mixed by him under his BARBELLE moniker. Accompanied by films directed by Lee and John Strand, ‘Everyone Afraid To Be Forgotten’ is assembled with a companion audio / visual experience.
Although as enigmatic and delightfully odd as IAMAMIWHOAMI, IONNALEE is Jonna Lee’s attempt to be more upfront and less abstract than in the past. No doubt buoyed by the success of touring with RÖYKSOPP, guest contributors such as Jamie McDermott of THE IRREPRESSIBLES, COM TRUISE and TR/ST figure on ‘Everyone Afraid To Be Forgotten’.
The first track presented for the project in March 2017, the stuttering presence of ‘Samaritan’ saw Lee caught passionately in an almost Nordic rap delivery of literally tens of syllables. Meanwhile, the haunting crystalline arpeggio of ‘Simmer Down’ welcomed a more stripped down introduction before the stop/start song launched into a driving percussive cacophony of bass squelches and pronounced vocals layers.
Trailed by this staged online presence, it was actually difficult to see the join with IAMAMIWHOAMI. This was most apparent on the glorious ‘Not Human’ which unveiled itself in June 2017. Co-written with synthwave exponent COM TRUISE, there were still the icy electronic soundscapes, spacey dance beats and uplifting Scandipop vocals associated with her IAMAMIWHOAMI output. But the seamless development appealed to anyone remotely enticed by Jonna Lee’s vocal presence as she announced “the urge is animal, I’m not human”.
In duet with fellow RÖYKSOPP collaborator Jamie McDermott, ‘Dunes Of Sand’ was a widescreen duet that screamed of Scandinavian shorelines with an unexpectedly trancey tempo change in the final quarter.
‘Work’ explored brassier aesthetics at its start before pulses and beats led it to a kooky orchestrated drama. But the eerie presence of ‘Joy’ provided more mystery, gently paced before it expanded in volume and intensity. And while initially more sedate and subtly rhythmic, ‘Gone’ eventually mutated into what CHVRCHES might have sounded like had they been raised next to the Gulf of Bothnia.
Despite half the album already previewed online, IONNALEE does offer further gifts from the serene building opener ‘Watches Watches’ and the paradoxically pretty ‘Like Hell’, to the ornate surroundings of ‘Temple’ and the sparse neo-acapella drama of ‘Here Is A Warning’.
‘Blazing’ offers some stranger things as chipmunk voices, drones and a deadpan demeanour weld together, while on ‘Memento’ with BARBELLE, cello samples and mournful synths shape a much doomier soundscape.
But the mood changes on the frantically paced ‘Harvest’ with TR/ST; it is a mighty album highlight with Robert Alfons restraining his usual “Eeyore gone goth” delivery to compliment Lee’s angelic tones and the lovely pipey synth counterpoints in the track’s second half. Perhaps best of all is the marvellous closing number ‘Fold’, featuring exotic cascading timbres and spacey pulsars while distorted string synths add the appropriate chill as Lee’s passionate vocals complete the filmic vibe.
Much anticipated, ‘Everyone Afraid To Be Forgotten’ is easily equal to Jonna Lee’s work with IAMAMIWHOAMI. Although wanting to be more personal and less mysterious, IONNALEE’s first album is still a spacey immersion into another world with just the right level of disconnect for a wonderful escapist experience.
Yes at fifteen tracks, it’s rather a long trip, but worthy of the time and investment…
A limited collectors edition in CD+DVD format including the album on CD and film on DVD with an image / lyric book is available from https://shop.towhomitmayconcern.cc
IONNALEE plays London Heaven on Wednesday 9th May 2018
As a cardinal of the European avant-garde and co-founder of TUXEDOMOON, Blaine L Reininger is both schooled and shrouded in mystery. Born in a straight-laced part of America, the multi-instrumentalist performer and composer has spent most of his career in the alleyways and shadowy dives of Europe’s lowlands.
He currently lives in Greece – ground zero for the continent’s myths and a portal for all things Oriental. The influence can be seen on his new solo album ‘The Blue Sleep’. Strikingly beautiful, it reveals its secrets like a Japanese puzzle box. A missing part of the solution is how Blaine L Reininger continues to produce material that draws in the listener so intently; each song unlocking another set of feelings in the winding path to the album’s core.
The opening track ‘Public Transformation’ has the languid beauty and unending reverb of William Orbit’s ‘Strange Cargo’ work. A guitar riff loops while synths bubble and soar; Reininger’s trademark violin darting between them at strategic points like a dolphin through Mediterranean waves. He has always had an intuitive feel for electronic music, and starting the album with a dreamy instrumental is welcome statement of intent.
It’s on the title track that the gravel and gravitas of Reininger’s distinctive voice makes its first appearance. ‘The Blue Street’ is a storming piece of experimental pop: three minutes of club-demolishing intensity with a bass line dripping in sweat. There is an echo of TUXEDOMOON’s ‘Dark Companion’ in the way it curls around your hips, but it is over all too soon – perhaps a 12 inch single version with remixes will satisfy the cheque being written to the dancefloor.
The groove gives way to ‘Lost Ballroom’, which leads with exotic rhythms and phrasing. The song chimes with sensations wafted in from across the Bosphorous, but it quickly glows white from the heat of Reininger’s guitar. The feeling bears some comparison to the best bits of Peter Gabriel’s soundtrack for ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’ without the thorns and blood.
‘Dry Food’ is a song for a cat. It had better be. Otherwise, the subject who bites Reininger’s foot and is stroked while eating the dry food of the title is stranger than fiction. “I wonder if we are really friends” he muses, and that’s a question no dog owner would ask. Things get more playful from there. The San Francisco synthesizer style that TUXEDOMOON and the Ralph Records crowd created comes out on ‘Camminando Qui’, dissolving into a kind of unjazz. The next tracks move between mythical tales spun on currents of processed sound and digital synthesizers (NI Absynth, is that you?) hanging in the air like curtains of light.
The album comes to an end with ‘Odi et Amo’, an ode to love and hate lapping the shore like fragments of amber in the tide. Reininger’s style is far from orthodox, but you can take it as an article of faith that ‘The Blue Sleep’ will comfort those who suffer from the want of accessible but intelligent music.
When CHVRCHES released ‘The Mother We Share’, it was described as “the sound of Taylor Swift gone electro”.
And now with the kaleidoscopic ‘Get Out’, the bouncy first song to be previewed from CHVRCHES’ as-yet-untitled third album, Lauren Mayberry, Iain Cook and Martin Doherty have gone the full Taylor and presented their most overt pop statement to date.
Despite rumours that David A Stewart of EURYTHMICS fame was to produce the next CHVRCHES album, the trio have turned to Greg Kurstin whose credits have included Ellie Goulding, Sia, Lily Allen, Kelly Clarkson, Lana Del Rey, Adele, Katy Perry and yes, Taylor Swift!
With Miss Swift’s CHVRCHES aping ‘Gorgeous’ hitting the airwaves of late, there has obviously been something of a language exchange between both parties. With a highly infectious chorus and bridge attached to the Glaswegians’ usual percussive trademarks, ‘Get Out’ is one of those supreme singalongs.
The song’s accompanying multi-screen surveillance style video sees Cook pondering over a vintage computer in the studio while Mayberry is captured in a restroom, lipstick drawing a crossed-out heart in what appears to be this album’s campaign logo; this is an image that has actually appeared before, having previously adorned the artwork of TRIO, DURAN DURAN and NIGHT CLUB.
And in a move reminiscent of DEPECHE MODE’s phoneline promotional campaign for ‘Personal Jesus’, pay close attention to the video and a phone number appears in one of the screens which when actually dialled, reveals a recording of Mayberry reading some shadowy prose…
CHVRCHES go into this third album phase on an artistic high, having delivered in ‘Every Open Eye’, a decent second album; this was something that LITTLE BOOTS, LA ROUX, LADYHAWKE or HURTS never managed! So while expectations are high, they have forward momentum.
But a slight word of warning though… more live drums beckon!
‘Get Out’ is released by Virgin Records on the usual digital platforms
Following some singular adventures in the neo-stateside pop of ‘The Same Road’ and the experimental reggae of The One’, avant-pop songstress FIFI RONG is back with a 4 track EP entitled ‘Awake’.
She says: “Awake is about waking up to the truth after you have hypnotised yourself and deconstructing the paradoxes of human nature: subordination and rebellion, pain and joy, self-limitation and liberation”.
Fresh from a series of special guest appearances with YELLO during their recent European live jaunt where she provided her dreamy elegance to their songs ‘Lost In Motion’ and ‘Kiss The Cloud’, the Beijing-born beauty is in a buoyant artistic mood.
Indeed, spending time with Dieter Meier and Boris Blank appears to have had an effect with the angelic air of the ‘Awake’ title track recalling the solid rhythmic charge of her Swiss collaborators.
Exotic and delightfully odd, the superb aural barrage of ‘Attack’ really is genre-bending, bursts of drum ‘n’ bass, techno noise, distortion, computer game bleeps and creepy vocal pitch shifts with rather crucially, a great melody as well.
The rhythmic ragga ‘n’ hum of ‘Horizon’ utilises its electronics to full effect, while Miss Rong adds a ghostly resonance, blurring the picture with soprano cut-ups.
‘Sin City’ is straightforward Fifi as past listeners have known and loves her, with “the bleak darkness” shimmering alongside her wonderful voice and gentle percussion on the threes conjuring an unusual but divine sound.
Playful yet melancholic, accessible yet intriguing. After the singles trail of the last 18 months, it is great to again have a body of work to represent the current artistic mindset of FIFI RONG in ‘Awake’. Curious? Yes, you should be! 😉
We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it.
, 
and 
since 2009 with producer Claes Björklund, Swedish singer / songwriter / producer / filmmaker Jonna Lee presents her solo album 
.
. Strikingly beautiful, it reveals its secrets like a Japanese puzzle box. A missing part of the solution is how 
is one of those supreme singalongs.
Follow Us!