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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.
CD Tracklisting :
1. Tætir rækju (2.58)
2. Kofi (7.21)
3. Skref (8.05)
4. C-vernd (7.18)
5. Efling (7.05)
6. E.K (5.05)
7. Nálgast (5.43)
8. Tálkn (5.23)
9. Grifflur (9.03)
10. Safi (7.16)
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.
PRICE / COST
DELETED / OUT OF PRINT
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.
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
A
re-release of a record previously only available in small chunks back in
his Icelandic homeland, ‘Skvettir Edik A Ref’ marks the first
widely-released music from multi-instrumentalist Olafur Josephsson aka
Stafrann Hakon. Instantly reminiscent of Tarentel and fellow countrymen
Sigur Ros, Stafrann Hakon writes extremely slow moving, atmospheric
instrumentals where tranquil guitars and a looming haze recall
Mogwai’s recent tremendous – but initially almost transparent –
‘Happy Songs For Happy People’ album. There are no vocals, no words
at all, just occasional distant hints of voices, plus tiny hues of
percussion and piano that swell most beautifully on the LP’s mid-point
‘EK’. Something old, something borrowed, something distinctly blue.
Something to make your wounded heart weep.
Comes
With A Smile
Last
list we reviewed Stafraenn Hakon's excellent debut "...Eignast
Jeppa". Well we quickly sold out of that one (don't worry, we'll
get more) but we do have THIS newer Stafraenn Hakon recording to share
with you now. The same facts apply: Stafraenn Hakon, actual name Olafur
Josephsson, is from Iceland. And everytime we play anything by Stafraenn
Hakon in the store, somebody comes to the counter and asks about it,
'cause this music is simply so nice. Mellow, instrumental post-rock so
freaking lovely it's like crying magical tears. No, really, this is nice
enough to make 'nice' seem like an understatement. Sad, shimmering,
swelling, chiming, gentle, drifting, gauzily melodic. There's another
Stafraenn Hakon release coming up on Resonant real soon, and we hope he
keeps 'em coming. Sigur Ros, move over.
Aquarius
Records
With
this third own-produced album, the young Icelander Olafur Josephsson
sees finally the end of the tunnel since Resonant, the label of Kepler
and Esmerine is given the responsability to republish it, at the same
time taking again on his wing his preceding album, whereas Secret Eye,
the label carried out by the members of The Iditarod, undertakes the
rescue of its first disc. Skvettir edik á ref' is to some extent the
stage of achievement, Olafur reaches the first apogee of its course
begun in 1999. If its the first two works had already broad brightnesses,
this one exceeds them briskly offering even the prospect to be a whole,
a long voyage unit and planing of a little more than one hour. Where how
to pass little by little the talented one to essential with a first
chief of?uvre? The evolution and the progressions are as obvious as
extraordinary here. Only one word is enough to describe ` Skvettir edik
á ref': superb. One of the rare successes to be married planing and
intimacy, luminous euphoria and fogs melancholic persons. Since it is
necessary to pass by the stage of the comparison, one will think of a
kind of mixture between David Pajo (Aerial M/Papa M) and Windy &
Carl, between Yellow 6 and Leaf Album, Mogwai and Durutti Column, Rothko
and Rafael Toral, or Roy Montgomery and Labradford.
One
can also think of too ignored album 'Turning', of Light, left on
Wurlitzer Jukebox in 1997. Many references certainly, but Stafrænn Hákon
is of nothing a product derivative, it developed a clean and coherent
style through these different tendencies. The guitars are central, at
the same time intimists, folk and whispering on a side, éthérées and
planing other. The percussions are touching and what characterizes the
whole and which is in the final analysis not very Icelandic it is this
soft heat infused in constancy. A disc of pleasure pure, purified,
celebrating the life and its pulsations, incandescent like the brilliant
sun in the medium of a blue sky strewn with some thread-like white
clouds. Impossible not to succumb, not to enter in resonance with the
atmospheres envoûtantes met. One plunges in a state second extatic,
misty, fresh and étincelant, euphoriant, at the raised oxygen rate, the
infinite beauty. After Björk, Múm and Sigur Ros, it could be the new
Icelandic revelation well, even if its style of music - space-rock'n'roll
planing intimist - the reserve with more limited and sparse audiences,
even if if undoubtedly more impassioned and pointed still. One hour of
intense pleasures not to refuse. Difficult to individualize the ten
constituent beaches because each one with its manner is a top and
multiplies qualities of the unit. Embark quickly and enter the dream... Didier
Matamore
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