Stockholm producer Marlena Salonen has been in operation in the Swedish underground under various guises and roles for some time now, and with this debut LP as Moonilena makes a convincing play for wider recognition. Previous output has displayed some interest in experimental, often beatless, electronics, a line that she continues to pursue here whilst simultaneously casting the net a little further out to incorporate shimmering post-Berlin School vistas, IDM clicks and cuts, and abstracted aspects of industrial techno. The results are considerably more ethereal than propulsive, oscillating between the dystopian and dreamy in ways that could be part way hyperreal ala Russian Mind era OPN and part way retro-futurist in a manner that recalls Emeralds and its surrounding axis of artists. Salonen has some credentials as a visual artist/designer, and there's a certain filmic allure to these eight compositions, the sonic grimdark undertones speaking to some unknown narrative likely foreshadowing something quite alarming - there's certainly a foreboding sense of doom. Minnet translates as memory and suitably the specifics of Salonen's vision are a little hazy, but just like the end of the world, it's a compelling experience all the same. Edition of 200.
