Tor Lundvall — Yule
Opening track Busy Station recalls much of the work on Empty City with distant sounds and ghostly minimal electronic creating a wide vista of ambient sound. There is a very slight rhythmic thrust to the track but nothing that you would call a beat really. The train home is characteristic of the this releases melodic and more direct approach. Light synth pulses and tinkling showers of sound open the minds eye to a quiet train ride home late at night, passing through frozen fields and silent snow covered streets.
Christmas eve is when things really get going and is the first of several track that feature prominent vocals by Lundvall. There is again a lovely delicate melody and light rhythm that allows the simple phrasing of the lyrics to take better effect. There is also some use of guitar and an overall more straightforward song writing approach. It’s surprisingly uplifting stuff.
After a droning synth swath of sound in the shape of Snowy Morning the Eps central track kicks in. Yule song again features vocals and guitar creating a sort of dark ambient folk mood. The vocals are recorded so to almost float on the wind not really intruding on the smooth relaxed feel of the songs. I guess for me the vocals do take away some of the mystery and magic of the instrumental music that was so evident on Empty City. Now there is a narrative, a pointer to the meaning and direction of the songs.
Fading light has a thick swell of sound that wells up around simple repeated bells and synth pulses, while January is the most minimal and haunting of the tracks. Lundvalls vocals sounding apprehensive at the beginning of a new year. Again beautiful almost choral electronics drift like dark clouds around Lundvalls silent characters as in his evocative artwork for his Cds.
The final track The falling snow is an extended work over twenty minutes in length. It begins with near silence that slowly builds with drones and minimal harmonics. Distant sounds draw the listener in, straining for those little shafts of activity and melody that trickle down every few minutes. After ten minutes a regular pulse of bells like snow drops permeates the mix, this continues for a few more minutes before the track slowly drifts away in a whirl of drone and unknown sounds.