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Release Info :
The first release outside of his homeland for Iceland's STAFRÆNN HÄKON, centred around the majestic soundscapes of Olafur Josephsson, a young man with incredible talent and a big future. "Skvettir Edik A Ref" doesn't represent his recording debut, but it certainly announces his arrival on the international scene in a grand style; this is the first of two STAFRÆNN HÄKON albums to be re-released on Resonant after initially being available in Iceland only via Olafur’s own label Vogor Recordings ("I Astaandi RJ Punnar" follows early next year), and collectively they form the finest body of work in the post-rock genre in years. Resonant have also committed to releasing the first new studio album for two years from the band early in 2004. That said, to pigeonhole STAFRÆNN’s work as post-rock doesn't even tell half the story. Bringing to mind Labradford, Tarentel or an instrumental Sigur Ros, his music is epic, incredibly emotive and atmospheric - and though the component parts tread a fairly familiar path, the end product is anything but formulaic. STAFRÆNN HÄKON recently had to turn down the offer of tour support for UK & Europe with Sigur Ros (due to other commitments) - but the band are nevertheless big fans of his work, being aware of the material released in Iceland, and the offer looks likely to resurface next time round. In short, truly one of the most impressive debuts in this territory in recent memory.
Artist info :
Stafrænn Hákon started in early 1999 after splitting from his original college band 'Sullaveiki bandormurinn' experimenting with guitars & drum loops. After being a guitarist in his previous band, Stafrænn was craving to create his own musical sound-world based on distorted guitars and various instruments. Things started slowly at first mostly writing unsweeping ambient guitarworks onto his 4-track recorder. Whilst exploring his own sound and his discovery of the world of drum machines and loops, Stafrænn Hákon began to write more 'proper-songs' on his 4-track. The year is 2001 and Stafrænn is playing songs known to be on his debut EP 'Eignast Jeppa' self-released on his own Vogor recording outfit. Songs such as 'Vomiz', the opener on 'Eignast Jeppa' and 'Sítrónudurgur' were Stafrænn´s new style of writing his works. It was in early June 2001 that Stafrænn decided to take is EP and try to sell it in the local underground record shop 'Hljómalind'. The EP sold around 150-200 copies at the shop. In late 2001 Stafrænn had already written his second work entitled 'í ástandi rjúpunnar', which was much darker and the sound was far more ambient than it´s predecessor. This work saw Stafrænn collaborating with his previous band mate S.Sammi who wrote 2 songs on the album. The album was self-released again on Vogor records in mid-January 2002. In March 2002 Stafrænn opened up a show for Godspeed You Black Emperor, which might be the peak of his career so far. Again Stafrænn was ready with another album in spring time of 2002. The album 'Skvettir edik á ref' was again self-released on Vogor in July 2002. This time Stafrænn put more blood into the manufacturing part, and the cover art and sleeve were homemade during the summer of 2002 as a digipack.
Reviews :
It’s not often that a
release prompts a hasty re-consideration of where the boundaries truly
lie, but this debut UK release from Stafrænn Häkon - released last
year in his native Iceland, with another Iceland-only album, ‘I
Astaandi RJ Punnar’, due for release here later this year -
certainly does that. He’s probably sick of the comparisons, but Häkon’s
output does bring to mind the work of his neighbours Sigur Ros and Björk,
though in truth Häkon’s work sits in a field of one. The Björk
similarities begin with his gift for relocating the stunning, ice and
volcanoes wilderness of his country from the realm of the eye to that
of the ear, while, like Sigur Ros, he has a gift for populating that
realm with half-seen wraiths and elemental mystery. Here is where the
similarities end: Häkon has earned the tag ‘post-rock’; and yes,
now it’s on paper I can see it. But if this is post-rock then so are
Sigur Ros, so thin is the line between them, and that I can’t see.
Perhaps it’s Häkon’s gift for investing his instrumental
landscapes with rich emotion that justifies it, but, ultimately, all
music - from bluegrass to Beethoven - exists on a continuum, and who
cares where the lines are drawn? Instead, take this with you: Häkon
possesses a genius that is only one step removed from divine. Logo
Magazine
That the Icelandic cold
protegga involuntarily its artists from a innovation market ingordo?
The Resonant, label from always careful to evolversi of the refined
scene post rock more, reprint for the European market the second album
of Olafur Josephsson, fines - strumentista that seem to embrace the
cause of the first Sigur Ros in the search of musical wefts to the
limit of the intimismo. Between acoustic guitars, scarni drum loops
and carpets infinites of delay, chorus and xilofoni form suite
orchestrate them extremely candid that cannot that to also inspire a
comparison with the connazionali breathing of own air. The solutions
of Olafur contribute in fact to more create atmospheres submitted and
minievils, approaching themselves the acts of Flying Soucer Attack and
representatives of roster the Kranky like Labradford and Windy &
Carl. The quarter trace (C-Vernd) seems to testify a voluntary
abandonment to sonorous expansions and landscape, testifying the
passion of Olafur for the experimentation that has fascinated one
entire generation of shoegazer. The successive trace (AndK.) it
resumes shape immediately and one goes away fastly from the
car-indulgence of the previous brano, demonstrating one meditated
polyvalency that ago to hope in next the production of the Icelandic
today transplanted in Scozia. Blow Up Magazine
Largely based on simple
guitar melodies, Hakon (aka Olafur Josephsson) slowly unfolds his
glacial take on ambient music over ten tracks that gently drift from
acoustic guitar bolstered by waves of background sound to delicate
drone pieces. Josephsson works the simplicity of his compositions to
his advantage, grounding his developing soundscapes in basic folk
andeven blues-based forms. The way his soothing reverberating guitar
moves through waves of undulating sound is occasionally reminiscent of
Jason Pierce at his most mellowed out. Elsewhere the faint siren call
of his guitar echoes the ethereal music of fellow Icelanders Sigur Ros,
but on a more intimate level. The Wire Magazine
Echo-system of the
melancholy STAFRAENN HAKON Skvettir Edik has ref. Buy this disc! Loops
of guitar lost in vagueness, resonant infinitely, carry, raise, invite
to the escapade planing of after midday of which one awaited nothing
and which one starts to hope for eternal. The Icelander Olafur
Josephsson, alias Strafraenn Häkon, sees 2 of his albums, left in
catimini on his own label to Iceland, republished by the remarkable
label Resonant (Kepler, Szam Findlay, Sk/um). While waiting for a new
album, envisaged at the beginning of 2004, here the first
republication. Recently emigrated in Edinburgh, Josephsson is the only
parent of a music post atmospheric rock'n'roll, made guitars folks and
electric watered, amplified echoes, made melodies enchanters, raising
the thickest hairs. Not very distant from Sigur Ros instrumental and méditatif,
from Mogwai mast and hypnotic or Stars of the more poignant Lid, Häkon
takes time to venture in the recesses of its dreams, takes time to
precisely tell what touches it, to shake the listener of a light
breeze but as désarçonnant as vivifying. Circular, the music takes
with the tripe exponentially as one is plunged in the album. Talkn and
Grifflur (sample bidouillé with the passage), in climaxes of an end
of disc exquisite, all in melancholy and inexpressible beauties. The
slow evolutions towards a quiet chaos, the guitars which susurrent us
secret tales in the hollow of the ear, a permanent fog, revolving and
cold winds make it possible to found a real climate of intimacy.
Inviting to the dream and the lapse of memory, Häkon is illustrated
perfectly by circumventing any repetition, while avoiding being
identified too much with its references. The beautiful one, simply of
beautiful. Gross, deep, shivering. Soitditen Passant
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