Who is the guy striking the Jesus Christ pose on album cover here? It appears to be a Swedish singer, songwriter, musician going by the name C.L. although Ludvig is his real name. I was immediately drawn to this as I noticed he was once a member of positive folk Vanhelga who I admit to having a bit of a love affair with. After a request to the label for their new release did not get a reply, this landed in my lap so I thought it will fill in the gap although enough of mentioning the past, this is far from a carbon copy. Glädjekällor appropriately means ‘Sources Of Joy’ and you can probably guess that it paradoxically has more than an edge of depressiveness about it. Releasing a debut album back in 2011 and several singles and splits since, it has taken almost a decade to arrive at the second full length here but things can certainly get in the way even if you are working on your own.
Things do really start off like I would have predicted here, Åkarp sees as very much plonked in the Swedish countryside and looking at the map a stone’s throw from the gorgeous seascape photos that adorn the album’s artwork. We have that post black, post punk sound synonymous with Lifelover and early Vanhelga, a galloping rhythm slowing down and delivering blackened vocal gurgles. It’s very DSBM in a jubilant fashion, upbeat and containing many tropes of the genre from the sampled sounding voices cutting in to the latter sections of nekromantik keyboard / piano work. So far so wrist-slitting one may think as they settle down to more of the same, however they don’t exactly get it after this opening gambit.
What transpires is a work that is not so black or indeed metal and the best way of describing it is folk etched Swedish melancholy. You know those occasional tracks old Nik has plomped on Shining albums lately, sensitive and veering towards darkened traditional folk and pop music? Well that is just what we get on songs such as ‘Idag människa – imorgon jord.’ It’s worth noting ex Shining member Christian Larsson mastered this album too. Nothing wrong about it either as they are gentle beams of sunlight, certainly full of melancholy but gorgeous, fragile and a pleasure to listen to. Obviously, things are versed in Swedish but there is plenty of expression from the clean verse which easily show how much they are coming from the heart of the composer. They are provided on the Bandcamp link and further insight can easily be gained by throwing them into a translation tool. There’s plenty of nostalgia about things too reflected in songs such as ‘Den bästa sommaren’ where the best summer and what I guess more innocent and carefree times are looked fondly back on. To translate a little “A memory of a clock That ticks and goes A reminder Time you never get back” sums this up and this is very much music that feels like it has come from someone damaged by life’s progress and although looking back it is also the work of someone confronting the future.
Other genres are nodded at along the way, an almost Gothic rock beat enlivens Inkognito and the blackened rasps come back to cavort with it and the title track has gentle acoustic guitar with a near Country twang about it, delicate but fragrant in its sublime simplicity and lyrical poeticism. Gregorian type chants and a beat reminiscent of German musical project Enigma sees ‘Evig är de dödas ryktbarhet’ questioning religiosity as far as I can interpret, its heavy subject matter with a lot of thought behind it and it seems very much that thoughts are very much personally put out here in tribute to those lost along the way as the elegiac ‘Skilt åt att förenas’ contests.
So, although this is an album that will appeal to those into their DSBM, the template of the subgenre entwined around numbers like Förgätmigej, this indeed flowers and blooms down many other paths and arrives at joyful scented meadows on its journey. Perhaps it is music that is designed for people who enjoy being miserable but its not without help and certainly put a few smiles on my face. I’m glad this found its way to me as I found it a deeply enjoyable and enriching musical experience.
(8/10 Pete Woods)
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