Sofus Forsberg: Udefra
Jenka

One suspects that the colourful cartoon adorning the cover of Udefra, Denmark producer Sofus Forsberg's sophomore disc, portends either melodic, child-like songwriting or Tigerbeat6-flavoured lunacy. In fact, the album turns out to be neither: Forsberg's follow-up to 2003's NO/1 instead inhabits a relatively sober interzone between vibrant melodic electronica and textured soundscaping with the material's scurrying beats and brooding themes often suggesting a conspicuous Autechre influence (“SåDetku,” for instance, with its spindly tendrils of electronic sputter and chilly string washes).

Hushed voices, insectoid pulses, and ghostly pianos echo throughout Forsberg's melancholy Nordic landscapes. In perhaps the album's strongest piece, the curiously-titled “No Beat,” pretty glistening melodies flow through a propulsive stream of snappy beats and organ shimmer, with the distinctive hum of a melodica and guitar jitter adding unusual character. The album ends with Forsberg's remix of the Danish group Under Byen's “Plantage,” whose grimey haze of possessed voices and moans (courtesy of Henriette Sennenvaldt, who also appeared on NO/1) is unusual but also less coherent than Forsberg's other songs. Udefra leaves little doubt that Forsberg is eminently capable of arranging familiar electronic sounds into credible compositional form. At the same time, it must be said that there's nothing here that one hasn't already heard before.

November 2005