Analfabetism - Svälten I Kagelösa År 1431
The project Analfabetism hails from Sweden, and it is a dark-ambient/industrial project by Fredrik Djurfeldt. He is also a member of an EBM band called Severe Illusion. Since 2014, Fredrik has been highly productive with this project. This one is the ninth album! It has been released on CD by Fluttering Dragon. As a regular digipack and as a beautiful limited box set.
It´s a concept-driven album, a very hungry kind of concept. We´re dealing with famine in Sweden. Sweden has had troubles with several famine troubles before ( in the old days ), and this CD revolves around a village called Kagelösa that simply disappeared! The kind of stuff that happens with the crop simply fails, or even just bad weather. The artwork of this release also works around this concept. The main artwork shows a dying mother, surrounded by her starving children who cling to her. We also see somewhere who eats something, probably bread made out of bark from trees... which they actually tried eating! Even cakes made out of moss. There is also a drawing of an old lady, carrying several babies on her bag... with a kind of sinister smile on her face. I also found out that when the last famine ended in Sweden, that´s the year/time when the stories of Astrid Lindgren´s Emil Fra Lønneberg actually start. Anyways, let us get on with the album then!.
The first track is called På Galgbacken Intet Nytt (On Galgbacken Nothing New). Galgbacken was a mound that was a hot spot for executions; the last execution was in 1859. So people who did something against the law in these famine periods might have ended their lives on the mound. A cold and heavy chunky bass-drone sets the tone, with the sound of... something metallic being sharpened. It might be an axe, I think it sounds more like a scythe being sharpened, though. Additional distorted scrap metal noises get into the cocktail, with a strange and repeated howling sound... sounds like a howl, or someone yelling... sounds inhumane nonetheless. And that´s the track, which works solely on minimalism and mood... lovely, desolate kind of soundscape. The dread can easily be detected here!
The second track, Farsot, is the same name for an epidemic in older days. The slowed-down and repeated hypnotic sound of a scythe harvesting a dry corn field, 1:20, a huge metallic gong hum, and at 1:53, we get some excellent distorted martial drums and harsh vocals. I kind of get back to early Mental Destruction/MZ.412 here, pure industrial doom muzick! Still having that minimal sound approach. Later on, we get a kind of... sick chopped up sound which slowly goes up and down. With the sound of a heated furnace aswell. I really dig this sort of storytelling through sounds and mood! I kind of get into the sort of... madness that gets into u through hunger and desperation here.
The third track is called Likets Väg Över Hälleberget (The Corpse´s Path Over Hälleberget). The first time I heard it, I was thinking about the sound of someone cutting dry bark from a tree. But it might also be the sound of a carriage, carrying the dead perhaps. That dry sound when wooden wheels run over a path with small stony pebbles. Lovely dark-ambient/death-industrial-like drones in the background. And then it comes again, another creepy sound that comes from a human throat... combined with the sound of eerie machinery driven by human hands. Shamanistic rhythms are added, which give the track a lovely kind of mysticism. Fans of early Morthhond, take notice!
The fourth track, Drömmen Om Minnesota. It could be about the immigrants who traveled from Sweden to the United States because of the famine. Heavy, warped, and looped dark ambient textures. And some strange and minimal rhythm sets in, with some reversed piano and synth notes. Lovely distorted sounds emit in and out, a lovely sound representation of how mental sickness can sound like... without it being evil-sounding... much more serious than that! Love the way he utilizes the distortion effect, suddenly it´s there, and suddenly it´s gone, and it sinks into the dark ambient moods.
The fifth track, Våldsdåd I Gryningen (Violence At Dawn). A looped metallic gong, a constant heavy tone, and then... a looped distorted melody sneaks in. I mean, it´s fxxxxxx brilliant. And the distortion which enters this is equally brilliant! The kind of distorted sounds he makes has been made in a very unique way! Excellent doomy martial drums, with a very decent dungeon-synth tune to accompany it.
The sixth and last track is called I Väntan På Olycka (Waiting for the Accident). It might just be about people, just waiting for an "accident" so they can satisfy their need for food. The heaviest ambient track on the album, and a good way to end the album aswell. The album ends with a slow grind, not a bang! As we all know, the Swedes got through the famine.
Svälten I Kagalösa is a bloody masterpiece the whole way through. Everything has been focused, both the concept and the sound that goes with it. U can just look at the various drawings of the artwork, and the chosen sound just goes with it hand in hand... aswell as the concept, offcourse. It´s a pure delight for any old-school CMI fans, without it getting retro or anything. Taps into the old stuff and gets out sounding new and still getting to sound vital. This is one release that u don´t want to miss!
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