Blod - Leendet Från Helvetet

For reasons that are beyond my comprehension, Aguirre's planned reissues of a few of the records from the Forlag For Fri Musik archive are arriving out of sync and with an unpredictable irregularity. This reissue of Blod's 2017 LP was due to land at the same time as the equally excellent Knutna Navar, though the benefit of them being separated does allow for due reflection of their individual merits. What Leendet Från Helvetet mostly reveals is the elastic and ever-shifting nature of the Blod universe. If the aforementioned Knutna Navar leaned into Swedish progg folk and Kiwi underground pop, and the most recent record, released earlier this year, was an exploration of Swedish Christian church song, then Leendet... is Gustaf Dicksson's wilful hybridisation of free jazz, field recordings, and as is a Blod staple by this stage, private press folk emissaries. Because it's not committed to one specific aesthetic, like say other Blod albums Pilgrimssånger or Livets Ord, Leendet... is perhaps the most explorative of Blod long players, moving around at odd whims and engaging disparate frequencies. It's at once freeform and then melodically linear, almost Faust-like in the uniting of avant and trad disciplines. As much as they move around, for the most part Blod, and especially so on this record, sound like professedly Swedish music, music designed to express various historical iterations of Swedish identity and culture and experience. What that ultimately means, i don't know, but it does make for a body of work that feels avowedly singular. Though there's a lot of Blod records at this point (and in such a short space of time), Leendet Fran Helvetet is another essential piece in a puzzle i've a feeling is some way off being complete.