Isak Hedtjärn – Kvarpan

More outlying sounds from Sweden's avant garde with this debut solo outing from one of the scene's more notable side men, Isak Hedtjärn, a collaborator with Fire! Orchestra, Kali Malone, Viagra Boys++ Clarinet is Hedtjärn's instrument of choice on Kvarpan (trans: Quadruple) and his intentions are decidedly avant-oriented. I'm not au fait enough with the tradition to fully comprehend what is being referenced here - the press release mentions Johnny Dodds, Perry Robinson and Jimmy Giuffre amongst others - though I can attest to the alien nature of the results. Hedtjärn performs with a freeness that feels overtly strange and disquieting in its abstractness, a feeling not unlike hearing Stockhausen and Cage for the first time, while - and perhaps it's the instrument doing the heavy lifting here - the ghostly drift of Jon Hassell also seems apparent on a track like 'Kvarplek', sound unhinged from obvious context with a ethnomusicological feel, albeit it far less layered but equally confusing, as if stumbling across a lost Folkways collection on gamelan. If there's a modern equivalent, it's perhaps the work of fellow Scandi, Kristian Poulsen, another venturing mind who seems to favour putting the od in mod(d)ern composition. Brazen stuff.