Stenhjärta - Gryning Kommer Röd

Having previously (re-/)released a number of Blod, Leda and Neutral records, Grapefruit once again return to our beloved fecund Swedish underground for this first time collaboration between Gustaf Dicksson and Magnus Jäverling. At this point, Dicksson requires no introduction on these pages, though Jäverling is perhaps less familiar, having released just the one solo record of magic realist Tangerine Dream styled electronics via Discreet in late 2022. Much of that influence is surrendered here in favour of pursuing the outsider lo-fi folk perversities that Blod are well known and loved for. This isn't solely Dicksson's show, though, Gryning Kommer Röd sounding more overtly band-like than any of the recent Blod records, and actually expressing a hitherto unheard (at least by me) affinity with early Palace/Will Oldham output. The press release also makes connections with 'prog-folk', and you can't help but think they've got Henry Cow half in mind when making that reference, the recent vinyl reissue of their incredible Stockholm & Göteborg LP surely a pertinent touchstone. While Stenhjärta are certainly more song-based (sometimes with the charmed simplicity of Jonathan Richmann, suprisingly enough) than what's being explored on that record, there's a shared sense of freewheeling, collaborative music making at play that at once draws on deep set traditions while trying to find a voice of its own. What I appreciate most about a record like Gryning Kommer Röd is just how unfashionable it is, entirely happy to just be itself, pursuing nothing more than its own need to exist. Dicksson and Discreet have done a great job in propagating that ideal, and in turn Grapefruit also, through helping take it international. We're fortunate such clear paths are in operation for such otherwise outsider impulses.