REVIEWS "The following recording (8) has one of those covers that most definitely is not designed to hold its own in a CD rack at a bricks-and-mortar store. It is a sign of the times, of course, but here we have a plain white cover, no wording on the outside whatsoever, and an attractively minimalist gate-fold with an interlocking cut-out pattern. Once inside, you find that it is a CD by Fundamental Form, self-titled. It’s a six man operation: two on electronics/sampling, two reed-brass players, and a drummer/percussionist. The music is a compound of ambient atmospheric soundscape electro-acoustic Improv. As with this music in general, all depends on how interesting the sounds are that the group creates. Happily, these sounds are quite interesting. You get a fair amount of white noise, drones, some gentle noodling, and some more energetic excursions but all with a kind of narrative flow that makes the journey pleasurable. If you don’t expect JATP choruses of honking bar walkers, you are all set. It’s well done." "Opening track ‘Med’ introduces the melancholic yet not quite menacing cinematic atmosphere that trails throughout this entire collection whilst also kicking things off on a comparatively ‘conventional’ jazz note as Wistrand’s forlorn sounding clarinet solo trails like elegant smoke over background washes of digitally treated noise that almost call to mind a gathering thunderstorm. "Fundamental Form is a Swedish sextet that musically moves in the area between electronica, free jazz and improvisation. The songs are sprawling, atmospheric and almost impossible to place in peer. Add to that an airy sound and recurring sense of ethno-ambient a la Steve Roach (but with the addition of saxophone and bass clarinet), and the thoughts immediately will go to Norwegian colleagues such as Arve Henriksen and Nils Petter Molvaer. And it is not an entirely wrong thinking, but where the Norwegians’ music sometimes is drawn to the overloaded new-age direction, Fundamental Form has an impressive focus that is kept straight through. The common thread is Stefan Wistrand’s brilliant saxophone that constantly adapts to the situation and flows nicely in whether the background is an Alvin Lucier-like drone as in Att or a mishmash of cacophonic electronics as in Me. A most interesting group with a really versatile saxophonist who you should definitely keep an eye on in the future." "Fundamental Form has been around for over a decade. They are, to paraphrase art life vocabulary, a "post" band: post rock, postimpro, postelectronica. That is to say everything at once. The acoustic instruments play an important part. Johan Carlsson’s percussion, Mattias Ribbing’s voice and handclaps and Stefan Wistrand’s reeds gives a hollow grinding drone character, which at the same time is carved in quite roughly. But the overall tone is dark and full of dangerous echoes. Daniel Carlsson’s and Per Åhlund’s electronics are very active. They paint, fill in, while the wind instruments sketch long, lazy lines. Some unexpected vocal features by Mattias Ribbing give unexpected new sound rooms. Especially as the voice is moving in a sound world, which is not man or woman, and at the same time is both. If music can have it, then occasionally Fundamental Form has an androgynous character. Ribbing also uses a stainless steel water bowl to create a casual sound that mixes in a surprising way with wind instruments and electronics. Not that the sound equipment debuts. In Berlin especially Andrea Ermke has made appearances with the water bowl, which has made its marks in the soundscapes. But here is a difference. She explored the sound, waited, focused, twisted and turned. Ribbing uses it to merge with the others. The various instruments broaden the perspective. And it grows into a strange crossbreeding between a forward pushing free jazz, heavy drums and an electronic environment true to their dreams. It's like going in with open eyes into a dream. Fundamental Form’s essentially ritual music is highlighted by the vocal elements, whose atavistic pulse is captured by the percussion. The danger with any 'post' musical expression is that they like to get too polished, with the edges cut down and that they will resemble the fluffy productions of ECM, which partially followed up the emerging free form, but polished it to fit a larger market, and therefore redesigned it. There is also an evasive streak in Fundamental Form. But I like a lot how the musicians push, shove and fight with each other. When Wistrand floats away in long lines the others don’t bother, but interferes constantly with improper noise. One or another plays, though it is not his turn. It is good. For here they carry with them an essence of free form. And I didn’t know that percussion, water, and (it must surely be) voice could produce such a convincing dystopian sewage sound, as the album ends in. Incidentally, Einnicken Records has solved the packaging in a brilliant way with only folding, white paper, and two cut-out F, which also seals the convolute." "It has been eleven years and two months since Fundamental Form was formed as a result of the activities happening around the Eskilstuna alternative music scene Memento. Over the years the group has presented its jazz and electronica colored improvisational music at many different scenes, but only been released on disc at one single occasion: Mior on the collection Memento - The Scene, The Music from 2003. Until now, that is, as it belatedly is time for a very long awaited debut album by the group – which is made up of Stefan Wistrand on bass clarinet, soprano and alto saxophone, Mattias Ribbing on trombone, voice, water bowl, etc., Johan Carlsson on percussion and Daniel Carlsson and Per Åhlund on various electronics. The music is endlessly suggestive and exciting, full of dynamics and unexpected elements and as a living organism, constantly taking on new forms. As a listener it is impossible not to be drawn into."
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