Sewer Election + Ån - De Salla Jaktmarkerna

Late contender for best Gothenburg record of 2025? It's always a competitive field that one, but this latest collaboration from Dan Johansson's Sewer Election, here with relative newcomer Ån (one Matz Engdahl), is particularly memorable, two side-long synth-derived explorations and environmental recordings that prove both hypnotic and alien. Johansson's output as Sewer Election is frequently noisy and abrasive, but the union with Engdahl seems to have brought out the more serene aspects of his interests, especially on the A side, the chirruping synth melodies eliciting a beguilingly wistful melancholia. The flipside begins with something a little more characteristically decayed and grimy, before transitioning into a fugue-state drone that's about as pretty as anything we've seen the Sewer Election name put to. If you're missing seasonal affective disorder hum of Arv & Miljo or found something heartbreakingly essential within Blue Chemise, Malvern Brume or Andrew Chalk, Johannson and Engdahl might have just chanced on your year highlight. It's mid November, but as ever, Discreet keeps playing until the last minute. 
 
FFO: Andrew Chalk, Arv & Miljo, Blue Chemise, Malvern Brume