Fördämning Arkiv Downbeat | Electronica | Leftfield 6 Items

A small chunk of early 80's Swedish DIY underground history from the legendary but rarely heard Fysisk Fostran. Based in the small town of Stenungsund north of Gothenburg and roughly active between 1980 and 1984, the group released a few cassettes as well as a fabled 7" that due to mysterious complications only exist as a testpressing in 4 copies. Fysisk Fostran were inspired by the early UK industrial sound as well as post-punk and synth music, this combined with the young age of the bandmembers and general small town boredom resulted in a rather unhinged and wild sound. While comparisons at times could be made with other early Swedish industrial/cassette culture freaks like Enhänta Bödlar, Engürdetz or En Halvkokt I Folie, one could argue that Fysisk Fostran stood out thanks to their obstinate will to rock out in the midst of all the rudimentary, electronic experimentations. The crude fidelity of their recordings only adds to the utterly bizarre atmosphere.

The LP compiles the tracks from the 7" as well as choice cuts from the cassette releases, stuff so scarce that it barely existed even back then. Original sources transfered and mastered for vinyl by Linus at Elementstudion during 2023. The LP comes with an insert featuring liner notes by Marko Gillingsmark of Levande Begravd. Cover jackets stamped with the same stamp used for the 7" sleeve back in 1984. Edition of 500 copies.

Utmarken was a combined venue, record shop and recording space in Gothenburg that existed between 2008 and 2011. A short-lived under the radar hub for outsider art and fringe music, the place quickly became an oasis for an wide variety of local misfits and a hotbed for interesting sounds. The creative, multifaceted atmosphere spawned acts like Ättestupa, Lust For Youth, Street Drinkers and Arv & Miljö but also became a temporarily home for then already established names like Sewer Election and Poppets.

Fantasy Sex consisted of Dan Johansson (Sewer Election) and David Eng (Ättestupa) and existed on and off during those three years and the few recordings the duo left behind them captures the true spirit of the time and place better than most. It's still hard to try define exactly what Fantasy Sex really was all about. They almost became a house band, albeit one that necessarily didn't perform in front of an audience. The two major recordings sounds very different to each other and they almost did as many sound installations as they did proper live shows. Very fittingly, the duo pretty much stopped their activities at the same time as Utmarken closed in 2011.

In late 2022, David and Dan revisited the old recordings and came out with a brilliant 34 minute long LP edit. The A-side consists of a new mix of the massive recording that became known as the 'Blue lagoon', originally released in a tiny edition on the short-lived imprint Inkasso Kassetter in 2009. Sort of inspired by the then exploding new age-y movement of spraypainted DIY cassette culture, the track is a suggestive blend of tropical loops and brittle, hazy electronics with an almost Yeast Culturian approach to continuous longform composition. 'Desperate Attempts' on the flipside was originally released on Joy De Vivre in 2011 as a split cassette with Elisha Morningstar. You're never better than your record collection and the track shows a very different side of the project. Initially chaotic and almost FMP-like free jazz skronk mixed up with severe slices of what was once upon a time refered to as "Swedish tape noise", the track suddenly slows down to something that predates a sound that Neutral perfected and cemented a couple of years later. The LP closes with 'Waves Of Skin' which was their contribution to the Ett Annat Göteborg compilation cassette, a track that used source material from the Blue lagoon session.

Two-sided insert with liner notes by Matthias Andersson. Mastered by Lasse Marhaug. Edition of 500 copies.

Hot on the heels of their third album Forget The Curse (Mammas Mysteriska Jukebox, 2023), Fördämning Arkiv presents a Troth anthology compiling early non-album material and other odds and ends from the Australian duo. A massive 15-track retrospective, Uncut Flowers consists of the tracks from the Our Opaque Wreath cassette (Moontown Records, 2019), The Optimist (Essential Minerals, 2019), the Garland And Gauze 7" (Altered States Tapes, 2020) as well as various compilation contributions. 74 minutes.

"In evidence throughout is Troth’s penchant for capturing and collecting sounds from their environments, transforming field recordings, organic and non-organic sonic sources into textures of a palette that they then compose and improvise with. There’s a virtuosity of sampling and sound manipulation. The recurrent sounds from Besseny and Bowman’s intrepid field and bush explorations often verge on an indistinguishability between the synthesised and the concrete-organic. Permutated hand percussion or the throbbing of a waterfall; xylophonic melody or the tape loop of a bird call. The clank and tings of unidentified objects, matter itself writhing in the veggie garden. An environment starts speaking from iron gates in a paddock anywhere, close to the damp leaf and loam of a forest floor far below unseen birds and their cacophony of song and chatter. Tracks often collapse into a grey zone stretched between composition and improvisation." - Chris Colla

Digipack in an edition of 500 copies including a 8-page booklet with liner notes, photos etc. Mastered by Joakim Karlsson. Artwork by Charlott Malmenholt. Fördämning Arkiv 10.