Arcane Candy

Objekt 2 picks up where Death of the Moon leaves off with nine more tracks spanning 1962 to 1988. “Objekt 2 (Op. 25)” takes the listener on a mesmerizing journey of gnarled, scraped string action saturated with reverbed echo-tapping activity. “Plasibenpius (Op. 30)” is comprised chiefly of heavily reverbed voice-sounds that are severely chopped-up, sped-up and slowed down into another stunning, abstract realm complete with dark, electronic echoes. “Halften Av Nagonting (Op. 38)” contains the obligatory night drones, along with blooping electronics, hammering percussion, and screaming voices full of fighting, crying, coughing and low-pulsing skip reality. “Frage (Op. 59)” starts out with some heavy voice reverb and electronic noise, then moves on into more bleeps and drones with drilling, bouncing and whistling electronic sounds, feedback and nice quiet pulsations.

“Tora (Op. 67)” is an utterly captivating six-minute piece full of simple, plucked string; skewed, echoing percussion and a simple vocal whispering, moaning and chanting the word “Tora” in myriad ways—building to a super intense climax halfway though the piece. “Maskinlandskap (Op. 122)” boasts some tinny tapping, low rumbles, more dense drones, and shrieking, squealing and shimmering electronic sounds plus fast, regular and slow splashing. May I take your order? “Innan Konsert (Op. 190)” maintains really pretty organ notes, bleeps and melodies—another glimmering jewel. “Lagun I Uppror (Op. 197)” begins innocently enough sounding like some mid ’80s techno-rock track–indeed, it was composed in 1985–sporting a low, keyboard pulse with rhythmic drumming. More and more of this stuff is piled on exponentially, resulting in a thick sound-soup of super dense chaos. “Dimstak (Op. 203)” closes the album out nicely in a completely unpredictable, confusing fashion: a very simple and pretty duet of flute and acoustic guitar that anyone could love—very touching. As if all this weren’t enough, Objekt 2 comes wrapped inside gorgeous artwork full of smeared, stretched faces; haunted houses and a lone figure standing in the gloom. Perfect.

Label: Pogus Productions Catalog Number: P 21014-2 Format: CD Packaging: Jewel case Tracks: 9 Total Time: 68:15 Country: United States Released: 1998 Related Artists: Francois Bayle, Bernard Parmegiani, Pierre Schaeffer More: Discogs, Forced Exposure

Subtitled Electronic & Concrète Music 1953-1960, this is a collection of important yet very obscure works by this Swedish composer. Combining musique concrète and electronic music at a time when France and Germany were feuding over the validity of each form respectively, this man went on to gurgle out some amazing midnight snack atmospheres. Full of distant echoes and voices, flowing tape hiss, disruptive static, hectic sped-up and slowed down tape passages, austere organ and percussion (all hopelessly muted), gentle flutes, echoey thuds and metal rods banging away, this is the perfect soundtrack for your next one-man party. The stunning cover art features a close-up of an astronaut’s head on the moon with a huge iris taking up the entire face visor and a friendly lizard’s head peaking out from the center.

Label: Pogus Productions Catalog Number: P 21011-2 Format: CD Packaging: Jewel case Tracks: 8 Total Time: 73:25 Country: United States Released: 1997 Related Artists: Francois Bayle, Bernard Parmegiani, Pierre Schaeffer More: Discogs, Forced Exposure