From the ashes of the Swedish experimental band The Skull Defekts comes Joachim Nordwall and Henrik Rylander‘s project Saturn and the Sun. The Skull Defekts disbanded this past April after dropping their final, self-titled LP via Thrill Jockey. Begun in 2005 by Nordwall and Rylander, and going on to include the musicians Jean-Louis Huhta and Daniel Fagge Fagerström, as well as the US musician/artist Daniel Higgs for a brief spell, and Mariam Wallentin most recently, The Skull Defekts were always a band dedicated to the ritualistic potential of music.
Continuing to engage with the mind changing and psychically expanding properties of sound, Nordwall and Rylander launched Saturn and the Sun in 2015. While both artists release experimental music on their own, and with Rylander working as a forensic photographer and Nordwall running the label iDEAL Recordings, together the pair explore a minimalist electronic sound inspired by early techno and tribal music. Continuing to work from their shared studio space, Gothenburg Sound Experiment, the duo is currently readying the EP In Love With The Extreme for a limited edition release on September 21st.
The album’s title track is our first listen in on the upcoming effort and it’s a deep dive into their drone-driven sound. With a runtime extending over eleven minutes, the cut opens with a menacing buzz that resembles the noise an agitated swarm of robotic bees might make. Meanwhile, regulated pulsations of tone ripple thru the audio space as various industrial textures gain ground with anxious tension. At about the four-minute mark, this focused angst is joined by a driving, but deeply sublimated kick drum, as eerie whistles and reverberating feedback add to the mounting sense of disquiet.
