Mats Erlandsson & Gus Loxbo — Minnets Långa Kedjor

Stockholm and drone music have become synonymous over the past few decades. Stretching back to the pioneering artistry of Catherine Hennix - herself influenced by the likes of LaMonte Young and Henry Flynt, Stockholm has produced some of the most prominent musicians of the genre. Kali Malone, Ellen Arkbro, Caterina Barbieri - artists who have taken ambient minimalism and drone to a new intensity and continue to do so. And this evolution of the Swedish capital into the epicentre of drone music is in no small part thanks to support from state-funded institutions and artist-led non-profit enterprises such as Fylkingen and Elektronmusikstudion (EMS) - nurturing environments where musicians can meet and alliances flourish. One such connection is that of musician, sound artist and EMS sound assistant Mats Erlandsson and renowned experimental double-bassist Gus Loxbo. Longstanding collaborators, as well as, old friends who have worked together so regularly it’s surprising that Minnets Långa Kedjor marks their first recorded album.

Both Erlandsson and Loxbo have a significant pedigree when it comes to minimalist and drone music, and both are heavily rooted in the Stockholm scene. Erlandsson studied electronic music in the Swedish capital where he began to develop his interest in minimalism and the concept of sustained sound, all of which sits at the core of drone music. Working as both a solo artist and collaboratively, most notably as part of the collective Xkatedral with Maria W. Horn and with Berlin-based composer Yair Elazar Glotman, Erlandsson employs tape processing techniques to a mix of both synthesized and recorded sound along with field recordings. It is within this same milieu of innovation and experimentation that Erlandsson has seen his working relationship with longtime friend and double bassist Gus Loxbo, whose own alumni include Pombo and Silence Blossoms, bear fruit. Perfect partners not only musically but spiritually, the pair grew up in the Swedish mining region of Bergslagen, symbiotically shaping the musical journey of the other.

It’s this synergetic way of working that makes it so inevitable that the Erlandsson and Loxbo would eventually make an album together - in fact, it is surprising that it has taken this long (Erlandsson’s recording and mixing of Loxbo’s debut Trådknaster notwithstanding). But it was worth the wait as Minnets Långa Kedjor sees the duo delving deep into the minimalist sphere that they have spent a career exploring - drawing on their drone-based musical principles over ten incredible pieces of musically reductive beauty. With each track introduced by the aforementioned Horn, this is improvisational spirit at its most controlled. Loxbo sits solely with his double bass while Erlandsson extends beyond both acoustic and electric guitar to zither and percussion as he employs a wealth of technical manipulation to work each composition into something unique. The duo’s instinctual understanding of each other’s musical sensibilities and their shared influences from their childhood enshrouds Minnets Långa Kedjor in a foreboding run-through with discernible melancholy.

Utterly absorbing from start to finish, Minnets Långa Kedjor is transcendent without bringing peace. A triumph of sound, collaboration and musical innovation.