Gustaf Ljunggren – Fractions and Pastures

Releasedate: 04-10-2010; Label: Brus & Knaster
By: Lara Cappelli

Gustaf Ljunggren is a Swedish multi-instumentalist musician. He initially started out as the bandleader of Sofia Karlsson’s touring band, who he also worked with as a producer. “Fractions and Pastures” is his first album that features his own name.

What Gustaf Ljunggren delivers in this solo album is instrumental music which carries a lot of experimentalism. Something that immediately draws the listeners’ attention, and eventually their stupor, is the way the songs are structured: already from the first song “Islands” Gustaf runs the risk of often basing the whole songs on a sole, repeated melody. As risky as it might seem, I guess the aim of this is to build up an atmosphere the listener could easily feel comfortable with. This atmosphere is subject to many mood changes that vary depending on the instruments used; where some guitar arpeggios are supposed to carry tranquillity, drums, for example, are often used to deliver anxiety. This contrast proves to be tricky when too excessive though. Sometimes the gap between one song’s atmosphere and the other is too big and the listening risks for lack of fluency. Moreover, the aim of building up a strong atmosphere and the actual attempt at doing that don’t always seem to walk at the same rate. Sometimes the way the music is conveyed stays quite offish, making it hard to get into it. Overall, the album partly reaches its goal, but something that it surely deserves to be better grasped is more than one only listening.

Links:
Gustaf Ljunggren MySpace