GRAVITY

This low profile band from Sweden hardly registers on any radar. And that is such a loss as they could appeal to many people, prog as well as alternative rock fans. There's no other band that can write such complex music and still make it sound so spontaneous and organic, as if the music already existed by itself and they just had to seize it out of the sky and commit it to tape. (Now, if you think I've lost it, this is more or less a quote from Robert Fripp! But then, we all now he's really weird :-/ )

Anyway, their music can be forceful and menacing as on Monolith but it can also be equally tender, subtle and delicate as on the mesmerizinf SW4. And in whatever form it manifests, it's always intelligent and at the same time emotional, heartfelt in that unique understated way of them. It is as though they are a musical manifestation of the Swedish psyche. Not that I'm any kind of specialist on Sweden but judging from what I know of that country and its people, Anekdoten's music seems to breathe Sweden through all its pores.

Gravity is their most accomplished album for me and a definite desert island pick.