REVIEWS

Tor Lundvall
The Seasons Unfold Sampler

Strange Fortune

Posted: Thursday, January 03, 2008
By: Matthew Johnson
Assistant Editor

Before his paired "ghost ambient" masterpieces, Last Light and Empty City, painter and composer Tor Lundvall's greatest achievement was a quartet of albums devoted to the four seasons. Released on his own Eternal Autumn Editions label and distributed through the now-defunct World Serpent, these four albums have been difficult to find in recent years. Thankfully, there's great news for more recent Lundvall fans; Strange Fortune will be reissuing the entire set as a boxed edition in 2008. This four-song sampler, offered free to Strange Fortune customers, is a teaser for that ambitious release, offering one alternate version or re-recording from each of the four albums. "Whir (Mix #2)" didn't make it onto the Ice album, but it's a pleasant piano composition very much in the Lundvall mode, drenched in sustain with deeper notes grumbling under the wintry washes of treble keys. "29" was originally intended as a B-side for a never-released single, and is about as close as Lundvall ever gets to pop; the ambience is still very much there in the form of languid pianos, echoing bell tones, and lonely guitar washes, but there are soft vocals as well, making it more of a song than a soundscape. "The Backyard" is a demo from Under the Shadows of Trees. Like "29," it verges on ambient pop, and in keeping with its title, is warmer, less lonely than most of his work, conjuring scenes of sunlight playing between leaves. Finishing things off is "November's Fields," an exclusive track recorded during the sessons for Autumn Calls, Lundvall's collaboration with Tony Wakeford of Sol Invictus. It's cool and grey ambience, gentle bell-like tones and distant gulls evoking the frosty fall mornings of a New England seaport. Lundvall's compositions work a lot better in album-length, because they're so effective at - and dependent on - their slow but thorough evocation of distinct landscapes, so if there's any frustration at all about this sampler, it's that it's simply too short. On the other hand, listen to it once and you'll be slavering for the boxed set whether or not you were already a Lundvall fan, so as a promotional tool, this little teaser is more than effective.