Surefire recipe for success with this one - there's the word Gothenburg in the band name and it's coming out on Forlag For Fri Muzik in 2021. If only everything else was so simple. Ehent For Fri Muzik might be the totemic point of convergence for the New Swedish Underground, but there's something about this second record from Gothenburg Sound Workshop that feels both definitive and transgressive. Perhaps it's the band name itself - the concept of a 'sound workshop' is progressive, pedagogical and explorative, all of the qualities you'd hope for from an emerging underground. Nonetheless, i wouldn't be surprised if this were the work of just one person, so laser focused is it. FFFM themselves describe this as 'contemplative and melancholic synth minimalism', which is 100% entirely accurate, minimal being the operative word. There's little more than synth and sadness here. Conceptually, there's some throughline to, say, Experimental Audio Research and Werkbund, though there's an obviously icey and shadowy quality to these two long form pieces that reminds me of the Nordic snow bunker isolationism of Civilistjävel!. Alone in the wilderness at night, deep in the mental mire. Few things from contemporary Gothenburg that i don't love, but this is a few streets ahead of most. Ridiculously limited, very happy to have even just these handful of copies to flog.
