Leda - Covid ”Music” I Made With My Guitar

Not entirely sure why music is placed in inverted commas in the title of this new cassette by Leda. If this isn't music, as such, then we've been doing it wrong for a while round here. Leda is Sofie Herner, also of Neutral and Enhet For Fri Musik fame, and this latest collection offers more of her very distinctive and consistently abstracted, dissonant and often confounding music. There's signs here that this is considered a fairly low-key release by Herner - the working song names, mostly self-effacing, that read like they've been pulled direct from their original shorthand project titles, the limited cassette format, those inverted commas - though that somewhat belies the overall impact of the songs as a whole. It's testament to Herner's experimental instinct this all hangs together so well, ten strangely shaped, lo-fidelity, often minimal tracks feeling very much of the same mind. It's possible Herner was firstly just making this music for herself - which is as good a place to start as any - but it's a great insight into the working life of an artist we admire, a kind of no wave improv-d intimacy that's unusually addicting, too. And there's even a moment that sounds like Dizzie's Jezebel. Whatever next! Credit to Knotwilg for bringing it into the world. If this aint music, then why does it feel so good? The answer might be in the question...