Concentric Circles offer up a more widely available edition of one of the more unexpected records to emerge from the Swedish underground in recent times. Initially released in September of last year by Dilettante Productions, I first stumbled on this third Sternpost album purely by chance while looking for something relating to another project with the word 'Ulrika' in the title, the kind of accidental fortune The Algorithm and the cruel absurdities of fate rarely seem to afford me days. Sternpost is the work of Malmo's Petter Herbertsson, a highly experienced musician whose work pre-dates any sounds currently emanating from the Swedish underground yet certainly shares a similar ethos to those satellite operations. Traversing the kind of jazz-aligned, bossa nova inspired spaceage pop we might immediately associate with Stereolab/High Llamas etc, this is notably less autodidactic/rough-around-the-edges than much of the Discreet-related output, but still feels distinctly sideways spun and self-determining in that same beautifully DIY/independent way. There's some extremely expert songwriting skills on show here, too, the kind you rarely see from 'the underground'. Think something like Harry Nilsson and Smiley Smile-era Beach Boys passed through a European arthouse filter, Autumn Sonata re-imagined for 70s LA if you like. It's wonderfully arranged and complex stuff, but with a wide emotional range that never lets virtuosity get in the way of its vision. A pure and true voice broadcast the margins in hi-fi sound. What endeavour! And now thankfully not gonna set you back a ton to own.
