Franciska - Tryghed

Discreet widens its reach and casts its net beyond Gothenburg for this debut outing from Copenhagen resident, Jonas Torstensson. The locale might have changed, but the same spirit prevails. I'm informed that Torstensson holds some connection to the intriguing Forlaget Kornmod label, a prolific outpost for Danish ambient & adjacent music that's turned out some real highlights the past few years - John Caroe, Forankring, Bäd++. Back in late 2020, Torstensson turned out a great piano based C40 for the label, a spraycan hiss kissed short collection of Satie-styled studies that suggested an extremely deft touch. Tryghed delivers wholesale on that promise, leaning further into that same minimalist piano approach as well as adding in a range of field recordings and, towards its close, some particularly lonesome sounding guitar figures. Though clearly all born of the same vision, it's a tale of two halves to some degree, the A side similar in form to the last Blue Chemise record with a series of relatively clean sounding piano recordings, whilst the B is a little more experimental, a confluence of sustained notes, drone textures and the occasional atonal crunch of found sound, calling to mind elements of Gothenburg Sound Workshop or a crude/art brut take on early Stars of the Lid. Enchanting stuff all told, and evidence of a migrating sensibility travelling out of GTB's centre of the universe.