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Album:
Exercises in Estrangement
(LAMP002)

Artist:
Marcus Fjellström

Release Date:
July 2005

Tracklisting:
1.Planchette
2.Jeux
3.Marionettes Revised
4.Lev Poem
5.Kandinsky Kammer
6.Oil
7.Music For Dx7
8.Anstice
9.Campane Morti e Acqua Crescente

Download PDF Press Release (70KB)

The title of this album summarizes in two words what the listener's expectations should be. The word 'Exercise' is connected to the world of classical music, whereas 'Estrangement' prepares us for something that we might have to protect ourselves from, something alien that will make us want to turn away.

What young composer Marcus Fjellström has given us is a collection of very dark and melancholic pieces with a strange beauty. Normally composing works for orchestras and chamber musicians, as well as scores for films, these two practises have filtered through in 'Exercises..'. Long, haunting ambient tracks are reminiscent of dark Lynchian worlds. Frantic orchestral moments could be the soundtrack to a Svankmajer mechanical puppet show or even a surreal circus performance. Like all the above would not qualify for an easy viewing, so Marcus' music is not one to embrace very quickly. It requires repeated listening in order to peel through all the layers and find the hidden musical pathways he has laid for us. An obvious comparison is the works of avant-garde composers such as John Cage, Steve Reich and Luciano Berio. A stronger reference point though would be the early experimentations of leading electronic music composer and Cage's close friend Morton Subotnick, as well as the output of modern electronica mavericks Aphex Twin and Autechre. Marcus, like them, acknowledges the advantages of the electronic medium and doesn't hesitate to place it at the centre of his work.

'Exercises In Estrangement' is a strong example of the possible directions in modern (classical) music. Already paved by names such as Ligeti, Thomas Köner, Supersilent and Deathprod, to name but a few, the path is long. With albums like this, the future is exciting.

REVIEWS:

Tiny Mix Tapes
August 2005
Marcus Fjellström's Exercises in Estrangement is an unsettling, visionary work of modern composition that falls soundly within the idiom of contemporary electronic music yet evokes the darker aspects of the work of many of the more brooding mid- to late-twentieth century European classical composers. The album consists of nine tracks that, considered as a whole, convey a sense of tension that extends beyond any of the bleakest dark ambient recordings, or even the more terrifying works of Ligeti and Pettersson. The pieces contained within Exercises in Estrangement run the gamut from electronic minimalism to dense orchestral bombast, and are often jarring in their execution. Fjellström's use of silence and space -- the quieter, ambient moments between the more cacophonous ones -- make for a recording of ominous, edgy pieces.

Exercises in Estrangement begins with "Planchette," which is undoubtedly the most bold and intriguing work on the album. The piece is somewhat reminiscent of Ligeti's groundbreaking and experimental organ work Volumina on a number of different counts. Volumina is a piece whose notes (every key on the organ, in fact) are sustained throughout its entire fifteen-minute length. What makes this piece so unique, however, is the way in which these static notes are manipulated in order to demonstrate the instrument's full range of sonic capabilities. The work is not about melody; in fact, most casual listeners would consider it to be somewhat if not entirely unlistenable. Rather, Volumina was composed to explore the complete spectrum of sound that can be expressed by simple, unchanging notes without any reference to melody whatsoever. "Planchette," similarly, consists primarily of a single, stabbing piano chord that is repeated throughout the track's length. The variation in this piece simply involves the degrees by which this chord is incrementally transformed, or mutated, if you will, as the track progresses. Tone, pitch, volume, phase, and other general musical properties of the notes are gradually modulated, compressed, and otherwise manipulated, until the chords are almost unrecognizable as having been produced by a piano. Repetition in this piece, to a lesser extent, also recalls some of the minimalist compositions of Steve Reich. "Planchette" begins benignly enough, though it ends on a more palpably menacing note. Nonetheless, it is a mesmerizing piece whose fascination lies in how it demonstrates the astonishing range of the instrument.

Most of the other eight tracks on Exercises in Estrangement are quite atmospheric, though frequently punctuated by chaotic interludes. The pieces are also considerably cinematic, like the soundtrack to a dream (or possibly a nightmare). Seemingly random, electronically-created mechanical sounds, incidental noise and carnival-esque orchestration, coupled with melancholic, somber melodies, give the music an incredibly visual quality. Images of bleak, industrial landscapes, nineteenth-century urban European environments and dusty attics filled with antique toys are easily conjured when the listener is immersed in Fjellström's compositions. The tangible presence of electronic programming on Exercises in Estrangement makes it a distinctly postmodern work, while the beautiful, somewhat simplistic classical motifs, in contrast to the record's more synthetic elements, envelop the music in a gorgeously anachronistic, ghostly dissonance like a diaphanous shroud.

rating: 4/5
reviewer: olskooly

Warpmart (Warp Records Online Shop)
Top Album Recommendation July 2005
Outstanding new album from the Lampse label. Marcus Fjellstrom is a classically trained composer from Sweden with an interest in synthesis and electronic music, his compositions have been performed all around the world by critically acclaimed orchestras and ensembles. This release reflects his love of electro-acoustic music and composers such as Cage, Reich and Berrio with a mixture of traditional instrumentation and subtle electronic processes. There is a strong narrative quality throughout that is communicated through changing timbres and textures that never become boringly comfortable or unbearably extreme. This is an engaging and enjoyable listen, one of the most exciting releases we've heard in a long time!

The Wire Magazine
July 2005
This stark, etiolated and delibarately capricious music ghosts along the shadowy divide between electronica and modernist contemporary classical. Its swedish creator is currently completing his postgraduate diploma in composition, and this CD -his first release- gathers together a number of brief pieces to form a survey of his work to date. The influence of Cage is apparent in the opening "Plancette", an electronically slurred, woozily pointillistic slice of alien gamelan whose sudden, metallic surge six minutes in is as arresting as it is unexpected. Elsewhere, Fjellström offers the ultra-processed, dense and dynamically complex "Jeux", the eerily shivering strings of"Lev Poem", the febrile, almost cinematic melancholy of "Oil", and the slight, winsome tinkering of "Music for DX7" showcasing in the process a variety of approaches without ever quite laying claim to a signature style. Nonetheless, this is sonorous and haunting music whose deep, dark crevices yield plenty of textural surprises.

Reviewed by Chris Sharp

Smallfish
July 2005
Lampse's second release comes courtesy of Marcus Fjellstrom and it's a fantastic piece of work throughout. Using a series of nine tracks to convey and emotional, deep, melodic yet entirely experimental sound he captures the essence of what this type of layered, textural electronica is all about at its best. Gentle, undulating, warm and yet icy cold; the breadth of sound here is remarkable and because of the subtle nature of the way it's put together, you'll be coming back again and again to its dulcet tones.

Lost At Sea Magazine
07 June 2005
Listeners who have digested those bold revisions and extensions of the classical language made by the likes of Gyorgi Ligeti, John Cage and Luciano De Cilio will discover more food for thought on Marcus Fjellstrum’s effort, Exercises In Estrangement. These nine works set up camp around a scene of modern classical arrangements, populated by flute, trumpet, harp and cello, which periodically venture out to more wide-open, quieter pastures where their edges are blurred and otherwise frayed by digital manipulation.

The opening pair of pieces makes a virtue of shrillness, issuing in continuous piercing, needle-thin strands of harp and flute; they unravel on occasion but hold together by circular breathing techniques. On trumpet, Joel Samuellson contributes to the sense of anxiousness by forcing air through heavy spittle, sounding the instrument as a bubbling pipe. The cyclical repetition of the piece reminds of Steven Reich, yet Fjellstrum is able to create distance by way of sustained, urgent multiphonic drones that agitate the air and the psyche with penetrating, confrontational edginess. After a successive minute of such a pattern, one imagines the pieces will simply peter out, until a stammering fist of static scuttles to the fore and sends the unsuspecting listener to a corner.

There are sporadic instances of such wild baying and prickly squabbling, but overall the unaided orchestral instrumentation draws out Fjellstrum’s thoughtful, ear-catching arrangements of ensemble frames and transitions. As compositions proceed, they take lodgings in more dense dwellings; it is there that one more clearly observes loose melodic contours that thrive on bold leaps of register and nuances of tone and timbre. Figures still dissolve into abstract arrangements, so there remains a broad spectrum of sounds in play as they explore ways of coinciding and continuing together across the remaining pieces.

Diversity is found in “Kandinsky Kammer”, as rattling percussion swats and pings trot along with marching drums and waltzing clarinet melodies. The whole piece evokes the image of a parade being held by partakers in the theatre of the absurd. Elsewhere, in the ornate string motifs of “Campane Morti e Acqua Crescente” one notices the romantic, almost rosy hues of Ligeti. The only qualm one might poke at this work is that, though the compositions sprawl across a wide-range of sounds, they do so in a manner one would expect from a pupil of Cage and Reich: there are steely textures, moments of squealing dissonance and muffled voices, but these appear, for the most part, layered too far down in the mix to invoke much stimulation. Regardless, unlike most efforts which endeavor to grab your attention and flaunt how wonderful they are inside, Exercises In Estrangement goes about its day with the aura of someone humming to herself while absorbed in blurry thought; I, for one, find that fascinating.

Reviewed by Max Schaefer

Textura
June 2005
Certainly Fjellström's Exercises in Estrangement is aptly named, given that 'exercises' connotes a 'classical' dimension while 'estrangement' suggests 'alienation.' Currently completing a Postgraduate Diploma in Composition, Fjellström allows a bevy of classical influences to seep into the album's nine pieces, composers like Ligeti, Messiaen, Reich, Stravinksy, and Berio, resulting in always challenging though not necessarily pleasant music. Fjellström's predominantly orchestral settings are in a modern classical, even avant-garde, post-classical style. It's an at times harrowing, disturbing, and loud listen, though the composer wisely gives the listener a chance to recover from the dark intensity with quieter pieces that appear midway through (“Anstice” and “Oil,” despite the unsettling current of dissonant flute tonalities that flows throughout the latter). Though the album purports to fuse contemporary classical composition with electronic music, the emphasis is firmly on the former; while there is an electronic side to the album (overt on the minimal keyboard interlude “Music For Dx7”), it's largely woven subtly into the orchestral textures.

Fjellström opens Exercises in Estrangement auspiciously with an inventive manipulation of minimal material in “Planchette.” Though its pulsating patterns can't help but recall Steve Reich, Fjellström almost immediately distances himself from the American master by blurring the sound and subtly modulating the volume of the patterns, having them resemble advancing and receding waves, and by inserting dissonant, wavering drones behind the pulses. And, just when you're sure it'll carry on in this manner until the end, the sound quietens to a pause before jarringly re-entering with a steely roar. The pieces that follow inhabit denser territory: “Jeux” presents an unusual combination of drum textures, atonal classical motifs, phantom voices, and howling dissonance, while quiet martial snare rhythms collide with explosive orchestral ruptures in “Marionettes Revised” and extended tonal clusters recall Ligeti in “Campane Morti e Acqua Crescente” and “Lev Poem.” True to its name, the playfully abstract “Kandinsky Kammer” merges dancing clarinet melodies with the fiery crackle of castanets and granite blocks of sound.

As mentioned, the album title indicates that Fjellström and Lampse are aware of the album's daunting content yet both deserve credit for remaining true to the music's uncompromising nature; such commitment bodes well for future releases. For now, Septs Vents and Exercises in Estrangement offer more than their share of challenging moments to appease an open-minded listener's appetite.

Autres Directions
11 April 2005
La deuxième sortie de Lampse, Exercises in Estrangement, du suédois Marcus Fjellström, est un disque hautement déstabilisant. La musique impressionnante de cet étudiant en composition mélange une électronique abstraite, designée, sombre, et des mouvements orchestraux contemporains. Bref ça part dans tous les sens.

Exercises in Estrangement est véritablement une claque qui retourne. Aussi difficile que le Mandarin Movie par exemple, les repères ont disparus et les ambiances développées évoluent entre le film noir et le film d’horreur. Violent et terrible, la musique de Marcus Fjellström, pour le moment, me fait surtout peur.

par stephane