Talaboman - The Night Land (2017)

John Talabot and Axel Boman collaborate on an eight track release as Talaboman. The music is patient and warm, but also broad and diverse. ‘Midnattssol’ opens with atmospheric tropical panoramas, coloured by rhythmic stick hits and bell chimes. ‘Safe Changes’ and ‘Brutal Chugga-Chugga’ are hazy slow burners that crawl at a nonchalant pace, while tracks like ‘Samsa’ and ‘The Ghosts Hood’ are contrastingly more immediate and assertive. ‘The Night Land’, as the title suggests, “is a journey inwards, an attempt to reach our subconscious and to document our dreams. We want to ignite hope and push imagination. Close your eyes and open your mind.”

Even when many tracks involve the heavy use of synthesisers and distortion, Talaboman have been sure to keep things sounding organic and light. There is no complicated message or hidden concept behind this release, it’s simply “two persons meeting and playing music, a catalan and a swede talking blip blop until we felt that we had something worth saying” - and perhaps unsurprisingly this impromptu style of working has resulted in an album that is rich and vivid, but also feels somehow pure and sincere.