Strountes
Slottet 2006

01. She Sleeps, She Sleeps
02. Sing Sit Her
03. I Have a Cloud in My Arms
04. I Turn in the Room Sleepless
05. You Also I
06. I Hate Being in Love
07. As If Cought
08. Stones That Can Only Be Themselves

Strountes, a trio formed by Swedish singer Maria Erikkson, her compatriot Mats Gustafsson (on saxophone) and Argentinian avant-artist Anla Courtis. Mutant jazz-folk? Well, something of that sort. While Maria intones sweet melodies with grace and pathos, the other two insist on sabotaging her by all means conceivable: extended techniques on sax and guitar, feedback, distortion, contact mics, processing, real-time electronics, and just plain demented scales and harmonies. At times Maria seemingly resists them, stoic and upright with the acoustic guitar, while at other times the interchange is obvious (see 5th track). Any chance for romanticism gets pushed aside on 'I Hate Being in Love', so hysterically charged you can almost believe the words. Then it gets increasingly abstract and feverish - paradoxally tying the three musicians even more closely. I really like this disc, so fierce and unashamed, and a great deal of fun too. Pretty cool example of how improv/avant techniques can work together with traditional ones.

>> gsize / mfire (54mb)
>> love it, buy it (Smallfish)

For fans of very high quality but incredibly unusual music Strountes are indispensable. -Boomkat