Luminarium

VINYL FORMAT. Insound Staff Pick - 2008! High quality, super limited vinyl version! Printed in an edition of 500 copies. Includes free MP3 download coupon.

This is the eagerly-awaited fourth album from the Stockholm-based trio of Tape, comprised of Andreas and Johan Berthling and Tomas Hallonsten. Taking cues both from pop, experimentalism and minimalism, Tape's sound has become recognized internationally and is clearly unique. Their first album Opera was released on the Häpna imprint (Johan is a co-owner) in 2002. Working intuitively, all by themselves, they created mini-symphonies out of electronic sounds paired with a stunning melodic lyricism. With an array of electronic and acoustic instruments at hand, they recorded at a small stone barn on the island of Oland, east of Sweden.

2003 saw the release of Milieu, recorded at the very same barn. These recordings had a more arranged feeling and a clear pop sensibility in some parts. In 2005, they went to Cologne to have Marcus Schmickler produce and record their third album, Rideau. This was done in his Piethopraxis studio and his involvement left traces; an almost architectonical approach was taken and some of the intimacy that characterized the first two albums were replaced by a harder edge. This new album is a luminarium of sound where past and present merge at the speed of light. A world which lets itself be sensed, not known; the first light of your rosy-fingered youth; birches and concrete, touch and go.