Artist: Örnatorpet
Album: Fordomdags
Label: Nordvis
Release date: November 2024
In last week's review, I noted how many solo projects/musicians curiously seemed to have published less rather than more music during the COVID period. This charge also seems to apply to the Swedish dungeon synth prodigy Örnatorpet, who put out a flurry of independent releases between 2018 and 2020, only to vanish and reappear almost three years later with the excellent Evigt främmande, evigt fjärran (released by Nordvis, no less!), followed by another retreat into obscurity. Two weeks ago I had the luck of catching this elusive artist live at the 15th edition of Blåsvart Aften festival in Trondheim, Norway (a full review of which I promise to publish soon). As we chatted before and after the gig, I rather selfishly managed to extract the promise of an advance copy of his latest work, Fordomdags, in order to get the opportunity to listen to and immerse myself in the album ahead of its official release this week, which I duly did, and with surprising results.
Fordomdags (which approximately translates to "days of yore") continues where the previous album left off, but in a way that is certain to cause great offence to genre purists. Evigt... saw Örnatorpet branch out from a strict definition of dungeon synth by adding many new ingredients, reminiscent of neofolk or neoclassical music, but not quite. On Fordomdags, he uses these elements much more liberally; while the music is still crafted using the good old synth libraries, the composition is much more elaborate, creating a rich tapestry of sounds way beyond the limits of dungeon synth, or indeed any particular genre. The traditional synth sounds still form the backbone of the music, but they are enriched by guitars, string instruments, piano sounds and even occasional vocals. In fact, re-listening to the album for the fourth or fifth time, I still can't believe that the music was composed by someone without any formal musical education at all. The flow of the tracks is crafted so minutely and the instruments are used so intentionally that any strict genre definitions become completely superfluous. The opening track is a great example - it starts off in a rather, shall we say, suspicious way, reminiscent of video game music (an influence which Örnatorpet freely admits), but is soon developed into a composition worthy of a concert hall. Not every track is like this, of course, and there are definitely more orthodox dungeon synth tracks here, such as the amazing Över ensamma leden, but the album never rests on its laurels for too long and kicks things back into a higher - or more experimental - gear soon, as evidenced by borderline neofolk in Mellan trädens galler or the wonderfully cinematic Af skönare dar ett minne. Speaking of which, I am fortunate to speak Swedish, but if you don't, running the titles through a translator is highly recommended, as the titles are very evocative and help reinforce the album's already strong storytelling quality.
All things considered, I'm not sure if viewing Fordomdags as a dungeon synth album would really do it justice, as Örnatorpet has clearly outgrown the narrow definition of the genre. In fact, Fordomdags is probably best listened to without any labels in mind. As its beautiful cover art suggests, the listener is best off treating it as a love letter to Swedish folklore, nature and countryside, with more than a tinge of nostalgia for times past. It is incredibly intriguing to me to see where the project will move on from here, but in anticipation, I can already tell that I will happily replay this album many times.
Rating: 9/10
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