TOR LUNDVALL

To rephrase it in PA´s reviewer terms , its ephemeral structures are quiet transparent, even if well accomplished or beautiful, by being so, in able to be true to its concept, they will actually find that kind of fate similar to postcards, they will turn out to be, if not essential as such, to require a certain specific mood for them to be played again.

So whenever you have the craving for all instrumental, nocturnal , foggy, and poetic electronic music recreations of shipyards environments, this Tor Lundvall´s The Shipyard (2012) will surely satisfy your hunger and with a very personal musical language in the contemporary planet of Progressive Electronic Bay Area/Ambient related music.

3.5 PA stars

*BONUS TRACKS ON 2013 REISSUE: 'The Shipyard in Winter' and another out-take entitled 'Safety in Grey' were originally released on the Tursa 2-CD compilation "With Friends Like These..." in 2010 (cross-faded into a single track). For the CD reissue, I separated the tracks and inserted them back into the running order where they originally belonged. I've also included one of my early 'In a Shipyard' demos recorded back in 1991. -Tor Lundvall

To kind of set its sound somewhere for new comers, and solely as a reference, this is the kind of sound which will result between an imaginary purely electronic music based No Man´s & Talk Talk´s merge, although the vocal register is closer to Bowness than Hollis, but this, I repeat, is just to set its approximate location in the Prog World and of course imaginary.

Anyway, a 12 track release ('Evening Walk' and 'The Falling Rain' were originally envisioned as a 7" single that never happened, however added as bonus tracks of the 2013 reissue, which is the one I am reviewing), of perfectly timed and varied mood, slow tempo songs in Tor Lundvall´s self developed musical idiom with simplified and precise arrangements (as always), inventive ethereal yet quiet solid musical solutions and well sung vocals which serve the music and not the usual other way around.

Easy 4 solid stars for this one!

Now forget all that!

An 8 track album of perfectly threaded as balanced, highly sophisticated, Electronic/Electronica/Drum & Bass collection of poetically charged songs (with actual lyrics and vocalist) simplified to its essential precision.

For those (who may be at least a couple) who already are acquainted with Mr. Lundvall´s works this is an extension and update of his already quiet evoluted electronic musical idiom. Creative electronic melancholia which when added with vocals may well be related to No Man´s environments but far less hurtful or Siinai´s modern 80´s feel or Underworld´s slow & elegant trances.

So, A dark place as such, to put it Progressive Electronic terms it is not. It is melodical, nocturnal, deep, mysterious, highly creative & detailed electronic music with no kind of "experimental bs".

4 full PA stars.

Its tones are not all black neither white. Its original musical composition is full of proposals. The performance although being electronically generated sounds deeply human in a wide scope of emotions. The record as a whole has a perfect distribution and timing of songs. It does not stick to lenghty drone-like passages, opposite to that, the melodic lines are unique in each (short-timed) song. This adds up for an album that is rich in songwriting and offers diversity of approaches in each composition.

So, the concept itself, more than been mere "musical" , has to do with Tor Lundvall's abilities as a composer. His main attribute for starters is his "uniqueness" in the full of TD's clones, "Prog/Electronic world". Therefore, the music sounds fresh and new. Not only that, listening to this "Empty City" cd, will catch your attention mainly by its straight forward and attractive "sonic environments", which in some cases are completely dynamic. As a result of that, this album is also compelling by its contrasts and perfectly detailed arrangements.

****4 "Prog/Electronic" PA stars.