Frihetens Förlag, the label operated by Blod's Gustaf Dicksson, returns with it's third release, an hilariously titled collection of intriguing contrasts, positioning alternating ecstatic piano studies alongside percussive body tapping exercises that runs a fine line between bemusing, transcendant and satirical. This feels perfectly on-point for Dicksson, who's own work frequently flirts with understandings of sincerity (Christian folk song, new age self-help meditations and collaged pornography all make intersting bedfellows). If Post-Tragic Man (what a name btw) is an attempt at some kind of pasquinade of faux-spirituality, then it is undoubtedly a very beautiful one, which I'd argue makes the joke land even better, for it obscures its intentions just enough to keep one guessing. There is undoubtedly a sense humour at work - the artist name, and album and track titles are doing a lot of heavy lifting (example: 'Tapping (Maybe Too Much)') - but it shouldn't be at the expense of authenticity. Is it possible to take the piss and really mean it at the same time? It's in this implied dissonance that the appeal of Unintentionally Provoked Kundalini Awakening resides, where a tongue in cheek can also be a heart on sleeve. Dicksson's hand-painted covers are characteristically thoughtful and distinct, another layer to pick away at when unravelling the mystery of the divine... Edition of 200 (and unfortunately we only received six).
FFO: Charlemagne Palestine's Strumming Music, Emahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou, Meredith Monk, Terry Riley, Colette Roper
Post Tragic Man - Unintentionally Provoked Kundalini Awakening
£28.00
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