Life on Earth, “There & Then,” A Space Water Loop (Subliminal Sounds, 2009)
Mattias Gustavsson is regularly seen as the bassist and multi-instrumentalist in Dungen, Sweden’s halcyon band led by modern musical alchemist Gustav Ejstes. Here we see him step out as band leader, taking his troop of merry melody makers through a path of bliss and happy thinking, a bouncing series of songs that reflect a love of 60s magical thinking. It isn’t drinking from the Kool Aid, not completely falling into some Hippie ideal, but the mood is happy by and large. He is a comparative youngster, after all, as we learn in this song that he was born in 1979. Other members of Life On Earth! include members of The Works’ Martin Fogelström, Alexis Benson, and Johan Holmegard (also of Dungen) and Erik Lundin, plus at least 10 more guests. As with the debut, the cover paintings and collages were made by New York artists and Lights members Sophia Knapp and Wizard Smoke. The album derives its title from Knapp’s collage A Space Water Loop.
Anyone who listens to Dungen with any frequency knows that musicianship is at a high level, and that violins and flutes can take over at many unexpected places. It is why we love them. The same is true here, though without the fuzz jazz menace of Reiner Fiske’s Stratocaster the overall mood tips definitely more towards sunshine. Plus, the songs are in English (accentless, perfect English, better than most people I hear all day in the U.S.). “Gospel of the Sun” leans into more familiar Dungen territory as the song progresses: space jazz drums, repetitive piano figures, a stretching of space. Wooly guitars come into the record, psych jams, and on the whole, its tone feels more of the Devendra Banhart school, freely moving and tuneful. “There & Then,” is just a spectacular mellow psych rock song, with a Therminny lead line that out swoons the flute. “We Know” features a beautiful harmony vocal and a really fine clean guitar counterpoint throughout the chorus (in your right ear). “In the Valley of Sacrifices” has quickly become one of my favorite rock instrumentals.
It is worth noting that it is a beautiful sounding album, wonderfully recorded, mixed and mastered.
Subliminal Sounds (English site)
