I’m going to be a bit lazy and go straight to the artist’s own description: “Pigments is a mix of ambient, electronic and industrial soundscapes. Pigments uses a dark colour palette to create haunting, serene, strange sound art”. I first came across Pigments, which is the project of Finnish artist Jan-Christian Forsman, last year when I tuned into an on-line concert at which they accompanied [ówt krì], whose instigator Kenneth Kovasin is responsible for the mixing and mastering here. “Thought Forms” is inspired by the paintings of Swedish abstract artist Hilma af Klint.

As the title might suggest, “Thought Forms” is deep. Dreamy electronic waves pass back and forth, creating a mental imprint but also an air of relaxation. Minimal bass guitar sounds and a quiet cosmic kaleidoscope accompany the waves, giving us “The Temple of Relativity”. A similar wavy drone provides the backdrop to “Vistas and Physical Plains”. Once again there’s cosmic activity going on in the form of electronic digressions and, in my mind at least, a kind of mist. It triggers my senses but I cannot relate these sounds in any real sense. If anything, we are looking over a vast and barren rocky landscape – the vistas and physical plains? This is a world or series of expressions being shaped rather than some physical thing, however.

“Transcendental” is another slow spiritual evolution. Minimalist bass guitar type sounds give the impression of the pumping of blood through a human brain behind the persistent dreamy, hypnotic, hazy waves. Behind this is the soft electronic sound of a bubbling pot. “Glacial Erratic” takes on a harder electronic edge, as though the tableau has taken on a wider expanse with bigger loops and a more pronounced pattern. By the time we get to “A Primer of Higher Space”, it borders on being cosmic-industrial if there is such a thing, and the expanse of the waves suggests they are bursting out of themselves. I’m not even going to try to interpret that. The track “Thought Patterns” digs deeper, and for the first time I felt sorrow and gloom in the waves and subtle touches. The sounds seem to represent a form of communication at a deep level but as ever it’s all set in a reflective dreamscape. The floating drone of “Parzival” is as ever hypnotic. Yet I am no closer to working out where I am in this. I’m not sure whether that’s important or not. “A New Era of Thought” suggests as a title that there has been a transformation or progression, but if it has, it’s been very subtle. Always deep, there is an air of gloom about it. Haunting electronic echoes and a slightly distorted sound make this more experimental than most. As ever I struggled to relate it to anything, and am not sure whether I was supposed to, but I did appreciate its deep electronic intensity and sensitivity.

I don’t know the work of Hilma af Klint intimately, although I do know her abstract paintings feature symmetrical shapes in a multitude of sharp colours and are born of spirituality. I honestly couldn’t say whether this work is a true interpretation of the paintings. “Thought Forms” is too abstract for that. In any case there’s an irrelevance about this dilemma, as the artist behind Pigments is my guide towards a world that I recognise in the sense of understanding it is a living, breathing place in a cosmic, psychological and spiritual context. I accept that I may be too mundane and literal here in trying to define or make any connection with any sort of physical reality, but “Thought Forms” did wire into my psyche. it is a deeply thoughtful and ambient electronic work which through its experimental soundscapes immersed and absorbed me.

(7.5/10 Andrew Doherty)

https://www.facebook.com/Iampigments

https://cruelnaturerecordings.bandcamp.com/album/thought-forms