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Jonas Munk to Release Absorb/Fabric/Cascade in March; Preorders Now Available

Posted in Whathaveyou on January 28th, 2015 by JJ Koczan

jonas munk

If you’re wondering what you might expect from Absorb / Fabric / Cascade, what with its slashy title and all, look no further. Along with the preorder link, El Paraiso Records gives a pretty thorough runthrough — more like a “funthrough,” am I right??? — of the second solo album from Jonas Munk, better known as the guitarist and producer of Danish desert jammers Causa Sui. And I won’t lie, it’s an enticing description. Munk‘s bandmate, Jakob Skøtt, as tended toward progressive texturing in his own solo material, and Munk‘s 2012 solo debut, Pan, showcased krautrock leanings as well in its use of classic synth and guitar, as you can hear with the pulsating”Current” below. As these guys continue to branch out with solo offerings, I can only look forward more to what they might bring to the next Causa Sui. Whether they’re getting it all out of their system so they can return to head-down fuzz groove or whether these proggy elements will show up more in that band even than they did on 2013’s Euporie Tide, I feel like there isn’t really an option by which the listener loses out.

I look forward to hearing how or if it all ties together. Before we get there, Absorb / Fabric / Cascade is up for preorders now and will ship in March. Info follows, yoinked from the El Paraiso website:

jonas munk absorb fabric cascade vinyl

Jonas Munk: Absorb / Fabric / Cascade LP PREORDER

Second solo LP from Causa Sui guitar player/producer Jonas Munk. These three long pieces aren’t defined by Munks signature guitar-approach, but is rather a musical vision of vintage synthesizers, organs, piano and analog electronics elegantly weaved together to create extensive formations of pure sound. The harmonic simplicity and unrestricted dedication to sonic balance and texture is something of a first in Munk’s body of work. This is pattern music, characterized by slow builds and subtle, but refined, transformations, where gradual tectonic shifts and tiny harmonic gestures generate vivid emotional responses. Instead of imposing any direct intention or meaning, it’s an album that can create a mental environment for the listener to expand and open up into.

Absorb, taking up the entire A-side, is a piece of meticulous balance, structured from techniques recalling the classical minimalists: soft-glowing analog synthesizer patterns in perpetual motion, creating new harmonic content as each bar progresses. Gradually, randomized modular effects are introduced as well as layers of white noise and detuned, heavily tube-overdriven guitar drones, slowly bathing the piece in warmly filtered fuzz.

The B-side opens with two identical organ lines played against each other. After a few minutes the organs lock into a an effortless flow, gently rolling towards a pastoral peak several minutes later, where piano and various layers of electronics enters the soundscape, recalling the blissed-out spiritualism of Alice Coltrane or Popol Vuh.

The album’s last track, Cascade, opens peacefully but soon enough crosses into multi-textural self-oscillating psychedelia – related in spirit to Munk’s previous solo album, Pan, released in 2012. Gradually the intertwined layers of sound rises to enormous billows of sonic saturation, where each drone harmonizes against layers of distorted pulses.

Music like this is perceived as incredibly simple and free flowing, but, as is the case with the biological world, reveals textural minutiae and interweaved intricacy once studied close-up. Every tiny detail serves the bigger picture. It’s music that’s practically vibrating with possibility.

http://elparaisorecords.com/releases/jonas-munk-absorb-fabric-cascade-lp
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Jonas Munk, “Current”

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