The Swedish-based musician Henrik Sunbring returns with his electronic music project oplen. Active since 2001 when he purchased his first sequencer, Sunbring would go on to release music via netlabels like Equaliteq and Acrylik, while also appearing on compilations from Enfant Terrible, depth and construction, and Zerinnerung. While the project had been on a bit of a hiatus since 2012’s release of “Skikt” via ohm2recordings, he returned to the label in 2019 with the 6-track EP “139/312/186.”
This year oplen is back with the digital/cassette release of “O-P-L-E-N” via ohm2recordings and the Stockholm-based label/collective Luftrum. A mixtape of his tracks “O,” “P,” “L,” “E,” and “N,” the collection also includes the long ambient cut “0d13n” on the B-side. While each began with a particular idea or technical approach, the ensuing recording were improvisational. Produced using analog synthesizers, field recordings, and processed guitar, oplen fuses post-rock, IDM, and dark ambient into a future forward sound suggestive of psychedelic, cosmic space, as well as more dance-floor ready club atmospheres.
Below, you can watch the video for “N” directed by Gustaf Järver. From its initially bleak and alien beginnings, the track build’s into a darkly riveting experience of driving rhythm and haunting melody. Järver follow suit with a hypnogogic collection of imagery. Strobbing and abstract, but threaded through with eye bursting shards of color, he adds hypnotizing visuals to what is already a very absorbing sonic experience.
