XKatedral HHV Records 3 Items

“XKatedral Anthology II is the second instalment in a series of archival releases dedicated to presenting music
by composers affiliated with XKatedral working within the realm of slowly evolving harmonic and timbral
music. This double-vinyl set contains an array of pieces dating from 2018 - 2020. This collection of pieces
focuses on the use of synthetic sound and algorithmic composition languages as tools for precise work
within the realm of spectral exploration. In addition to this, the electronic instrumentation in many of the
pieces is augmented by acoustic instruments.
The first piece on side A is Kali Malone’s Music for Low Quartet. This piece is an adaptation of the
composition “Rose Wreath Crown” originally released on The Sacrificial Code in 2019. In this iteration,
the music is scored for two double basses played by Vilhelm Bromander and Zach Rowden, and sine tone
electronics performed by Malone herself. The recording of this piece was made at EMS in 2019. Closing side
A is Jessica Ekomane’s ‘First Light’. This computer music piece focuses exclusively on digital sound, layering
razor sharp synthetic textures into an otherworldly dynamic weave. The music heard here is a reworked
version of a piece originally commissioned by Semibreve in 2020. Side B contains the work ‘Hands Melt
In The Sun’ by Mats Erlandsson. This composition is built from electronically processed tuned zithers and
synthetically generated tones arranged in a series of chordal inversions over a sustained fundamental tone.
This music, written as a love-letter to the localized drone tradition of Stockholm in the years 2008-2012, was
composed and recorded in seven days while in residence at Ställbergs Gruva in Bergslagen, in the summer of
2018.
Opening the second half of the collection is Rough Draft v.7 by Theodor Kentros. Kentros’ compositional
practice usually combines acoustic and electronic source material and in this piece he molds the sound
of the Buchla 200 and a collection of recorded wind instruments into a molten mass of sound. In its
original form, this music was presented as a multichannel immersive work and even in the current stereo
configuration it retains some of that enveloping sense of depth. The second piece on side B, Inertia, is by
Wilma Hultén, who makes her debut on record here. An exclusively synthetic piece, Inertia utilizes internal
digital feedback in a sealed synthetic system to manifest a harmonic field that swells and abates throughout
the length of the piece, interspersed by small gestural element Closing Anthology II is Maria W Horn’s work
‘Dies Irae’ for female vocal quartet, pitched glass and synthesis. ‘Dies Irae’ uses a modified form of traditional
tonal harmonic language to invoke an uncanny and restless middle ground between the classical western
polyphonic vocal tradition and contemporary electronic music. The version heard here is a live recording
from Eric Ericssonhallen in Stockholm on May 30th 2020. Performing the piece here are the vocalists
Katarina Henryson, Lisa Holmgren, Vilma Ogenblad and Paula Wegmann, as well as Maria herself on glass and
electronics.”

The Swedish word förnimmelser translates to mean both sensations and perceptions. In the context of the
album, it signifies the perception of other beings. Alongside Rakel Emhjellen Paulsen (alto flute), Julija Morgan
(baroque violin) and Tove Bagge (baroque viola), Kristenson refines her sound over a series of “collective
exercises, conversation and experiments,” designed to help the ensemble unlearn their rehearsed musical
gestures together. The process was explicitly developed by Kristenson to challenge the bodily and musical
expectations associated with playing instruments in a traditional manner. To achieve this, it was essential
for each musician to focus intensely on the listening process and maintain an awareness of their own body,
harnessing naturally occurring friction and resistance to create dynamic waves of musical energy while
playing.
The score was provided in fragments, giving the players the option to choose between notated phrases and
more freeform directions. Tempo wasn’t specified, but an approximate duration was offered for guidance,
in the hope that whatever timing would emerge would come from intuition rather than design. Kristensen
encouraged each player to think about their breathing patterns, and let that guide their performance. And
that’s starkly visible on the album’s 20-minute opener ‘I’, where oddly pitched string phrases graze each other
softly, strangled to silence periodically to emphasise negative space. Paulsen’s ascendent flute tones melt
into the strings, and the music appears to balance precariously between folk-y tenderness and sounds more
regularly associated with experimental classical minimalism.
Kristensen intersperses these longer, core pieces with shorter, more abstracted compositions titled
‘mellanrum’, meaning the space in-between. These interludes add an important pause for breath, rupturing
the silence with scant, virtuosic gestures. ‘III’ is almost funereal in tone, but the humanity of each vibrating
string gives it a level of uniqueness that’s hard to turn away from. Sustained tones waver and warble
like strained voices, and tones seem to oscillate against each other, either forming subtle harmonies or
languishing in phased dissonance.
Förnimmelser is confident, mettlesome music that asks the listener to reconsider the character of each
instrument, but also that of the players and composer. Deep listening not only recommended, but fully
rewards

Mats Erlandsson is a composer and musician, part of the vibrantly reemerging field of drone music in Stockholm, Sweden, associated with practices characterised by the extensive use of sustained sound. On »Gyttjans Topografi«, he is in a fictional room imagining a virtual chamber orchestra using zithers, tapes, double bass, harmonium, organ, and various synthesisers to draft a treatise on alternative tuning and non-normative harmonic structures. Transcendent material.