Library Tapes - Sketches (Make Mine Music, 2007)

1 Snowleaf (2:07)
2 First Day Of Spring (1:42)
3 View From A Train 1 (1:54)
4 The Park (2:37)
5 View From A Train 2 (2:14)
6 Fields (1:58)
7 Waves (1:49)
8 The Typewriter (3:12)
9 View From A Train 3 (2:46)
10 May (1:59)
11 First Day Of Winter (2:53)

Collaboration entre David Wengrenn au piano et le violoncelliste Danny Norbury, tout cela accompagné de traitement électronique et de field recordings, chaque pièce devenant un mouvement d'un même morceau...

Originally conceived as a tour EP, Library Tapes' Sketches finds David Wenngren hooking up with cellist Danny Norbury, whose releases have previously graced labels as diverse as Static Caravan and Ono. After the ambiguous, droning intro 'Snowleaf', the two musicians gel together brilliantly on 'The First Day Of Spring', which over the course of ninety seconds finds Norbury's bow strokes swelling in an ambient pattern, while Wenngren's elegiac piano crumbles elegantly into the backdrop. From here on, it shows quite some skill that these two are able to find so many different ways of configuring an otherwise controlled palette. But for some subtle electronic modulation and occasional field recordings woven into the backdrop, the content is restricted to that combination of piano and cello, but thanks to the clever production and presentation, there's always an implication that there's more going on here than meets the ear. 'View From A Train 2' is composed from what is essentially the alternation between two very similar chords being keyed softly and slowly over two minutes, yet within these small gestures you'll hear a tangibly emotive power. This effect is only amplified further when Norbuy takes the lead, as on 'Fields', whose incredibly restrained, understated melodies never have to shout about how beautiful and instantly cinematic they are. Taking in eleven different sketches over twenty-five minutes, this release just flies by, but it also feels like it's covered an awful lot of ground by the time you arrive at the closing track 'First Day Of Winter', and this is most certainly one of those occasions when the phrase 'more than the sum of its parts' is applicable: Wenngren and Norbury have made something quietly expansive and deftly constructed from what essentially amounts to just two instruments. Lovely.
Boomkat

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Library Tapes - Feelings For Something Lost (Resonant, 2006)

1 ...But Now Things Were Different, With Birds Unable To Speak (3:04)
2 Feelings For Something Lost In Two Parts (Pt. 1) (1:46)
3 Leaves Abstract In A Village Plunged Into Mourning... (3:33)
4 Abandoned Houses Hiding In Flickering Shadows (3:04)
5 Lines Running Low Through 7th (...The Shame Of It All...) (1:26)
6 It Was A Cold Day In February And We Walked Across The Lake.... (1:34)
7 Departures (Burning Saints For Your Own Sins) (4:11)
8 Shut Your Eyes And You'll Find The Trees Turning Into Flames (2:52)
9 When We No Longer Are Around To Write Our Love On Each Others Eyelids (1:08)
10 Fading Lights And Distant Memories (2:00)
11 Feelings For Something Lost In Two Parts (Pt. 2) (1:45)
12 It Ends With A Version Of Keeping, Reminding About What Once Where... (2:22)

Un peu plus d’un an après leur très bon premier album (Alone In The Bright Lights Of A Shattered Life), les Suédois de Library Tapes reviennent déjà avec un nouveau long-format (qui ne dure toutefois qu’une petite demi-heure), toujours sur Resonant : Feelings For Something Lost.

On y retrouve assez logiquement ce qui faisait la structure du disque précédent : des accords ou notes de piano délicatement posés sur une texture électronique légèrement granuleuse, à base de vibrations, petits vrombissements et crépitements. Alors que la tendance néo-classique “piano solo” était à son apogée à l’époque du premier album, celle-ci est quelque peu retombée depuis ce qui permet à Library Tapes de ne plus apparaître comme une formation surfant sur une vague où la pose était parfois de rigueur (même si le noir et blanc stylisé de la pochette apparaît encore comme une queue de comète de cette mouvance). Par conséquent, comme il pouvait déjà le faire sur Alone In The Bright Lights Of A Shattered Life, le duo se fait surtout probant quand il sort du strict cadre de ce genre musical avec la densification de la texture décrite précédemment, la participation lointaine de la guitare saturée d’Erik Skodvin de Deaf Center (Departures (Burning Saints For Your Own Sins)) ou l’insertion d’une six-cordes pincée jouée par Colleen (Leaves Abstract In A Village Plunged Into Mourning).

EtherReal

Last year's gorgeous 'Alone In The Bright Lights Of A Shattered Life' album from Swedish duo Library Tapes landed here amongst a deluge of piano flecked gems. 2005 proved to be the year when the piano became trendy once more and artists flocked around the delicate ivories of their grandmother's old upright. The two Scandinavians avoided comparison to the glitchy homespun loveliness of the Boats, to Goldmund's stark and simple minimalism or to Max Richter's Nyman-esque epics thanks to their very personal take on the genre. Using 78rpm vinyl crackle and distorted shortwave radio static as primary instruments, the record took the process and the medium with as much importance as the compositions themselves creating an unmatched murky atmosphere reminiscent of your favourite flickering black-and-white films. 'Feelings for Something Lost' is the next logical step from this, playing like a lost soundtrack, only barely recoverable from its decomposing master tapes. The tracks are for the most part as short as film cues (the album actually only weighs in at a scant 28 minutes!) but for some reason it feels like this is the only way it could have been. If you remember the utterly magnificent 'Memories of Green' track from Vangelis's seminal Blade Runner soundtrack then you'll have a good idea of what David Wenngren and Per Jardsall are shooting at here. Faded photographs, distant memories, foggy northern European landscapes, rain on mud-caked windows... you know what I'm talking about. Interestingly the duo have roped in some rather important collaborators to help them conjure up an even more focused image - on 'Leaves Abstract in a Village Plunged into Mourning...' they take Colleen's delicate fingerpicking and manage to make it sound like an old Gramophone record and on 'Departures' they look to neighbouring Norway and use Deaf Center's Erik Skodvin's ample talents to help them piece together the album's darkest and most dread-filled vignette. I must say that since hearing Akira Rabelais' stunning 'Eisoptrophobia' I have been digging around for something which treats the humble piano in the same crumbling manner - finally I've found it. Wenngren and Jardsell have created a faded postcard from the monochrome landscapes of Sweden, left it in a dusty junk shop and then offered it to us with love. Highly recommended.
Boomkat


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Library Tapes - Fragment (Kning Disk, 2008)

1 Fragment I (2:27)
2 Fragment II (4:02)
3 Fragment III (2:38)
4 Fragment IV (2:03)
5 Fragment V (2:21)
6 Fragment VI (1:37)
7 Fragment VII (1:49)
8 Fragment VIII (3:33)

Après Hostluft, nouvelle réalisation de David Wenngren, aidé cette fois-ci par Peter Broderick et Sylvain Chauveau, touches de piano aériennes, cordes légèrement frottées...

In the wake of the beautiful Hostluft album, David Wenngren returns with a new set of recordings, this time assisted by fellow piano enthusiasts Peter Broderick and Sylvain Chauveau. Conventionally, the Library Tapes sound has been largely focussed on the various treatments and contexts Wenngren has found for his light, airy keystrokes, and on this latest release, with the assistance of his new friends, he comes up with some incredibly beautiful moments, none more so than the closing 'Fragment VIII', which floats on a bed of slowly bowed strings and a few subtle stereo effects. It's a gently arresting piece of modern ambience and serves as a fitting culmination of Fragment's playlist of emotive song shards and sketched acoustic soundscapes. Long before we arrive at that piece you'll encounter plenty of material to win you over: from the opening mustiness and fake wax cylinder hiss of 'Fragment I' and the layered music box chimes of 'Fragment II' you'll be sucked into the Library Tapes universe almost immediately, and it's never sounded better. Utterly lovely.
Boomkat

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Library Tapes - Alone In The Bright Lights Of A Shattered Life (Resonant, 2005)

1 Broken Piano Pt. 2 (2:46)
2 In A Safe Place... Somewhere Near Your Heart (5:10)
3 The Leaves Have Left Us (3:50)
4 Cold Leaves For The Violent Ground (3:05)
5 The Scratches On The Window In The Doors Of Each Cell (5:40)
6 Broken Piano Pt. 1 (3:00)
7 Alone In The Bright Lights Of A Shattered Life (9:31)

Les deux Andy avouent que leurs inspirations principales pour la gestion du label anglais Resonant sont Kranky, Constellation et Fat Cat. Il faut avouer que c'est placer la barre très haut. Mais à voir le catalogue qu'ils se sont créés en six années d'existence, on se dit que les bougres s'en sortent à merveille. Voyez plutôt : Do Make Say Think, Jessica Bailiff et les Islandais Stafraenn Hakon et Ölvis figurent dans leurs réserves. Et voilà maintenant qu'ils nous sortent Alone In The Bright Lights Of A Shattered Life, un premier album prometteur du duo suédois Library Tapes.

À la lecture du titre du disque (littéralement "seul dans les lumières lumineuses d'une vie brisée"), on est rapidement fixé sur l'ambiance. Ce n'est pas le morceau d'ouverture Broken Piano Pt.2 avec ses notes dissonantes et sa mélodie lente, éthérée qui va nous rassurer : Library Tapes n'est pas joyeux. La mélancolie est omniprésente tout au long de l'album. Ce qui fait la particularité du groupe, c'est l'utilisation de l'instrument mélancolique par excellence : le piano. Peu de groupes officiant dans ce registre musical que l'on pourrait qualifier de post-rock ambient (et parmi lequel nous placerons Labradford, les premiers Tarentel, Stars of the Lid), ne l'ont utilisé avec autant d'insistance.

L'utilisation du piano n'est pourtant pas ici une révolution. Il est quasiment toujours accompagné d'une guitare électrique, sauf sur les morceaux qui lui sont dédiés (Broken Piano Pt.1 et 2). Les structures des morceaux sont assez analogues aux classiques du genre, à savoir un début mélodique qui vire à la dissonance et au cataclysme sonore. Musicalement Alone In The Bright Lights Of A Shattered Life est une très bonne synthèse du He Has Left Us Alone de A Silver Mount Zion et du CODY de Mogwai, une torture lente de sentiments simples et profonds. Mais le fait de remplacer une guitare par un piano renforce encore plus les émotions que l'on peut ressentir en écoutant ce genre de musique. Dans les parties calmes, la pureté des notes et le coté aérien sont mis en avant, le son étant plus claquant et sec, la nudité des mélodies est alors renforcée. En ce qui concerne les parties plus énervées, l'opposition avec la guitare électrique noisy est plus marquée et permet de mieux jouer sur les contrastes, décoller avec la guitare en restant scotché au sol par le piano (Cold Leaves For The Violent Ground en est l'exemple parfait).

Les deux compères de Library Tapes précisent que ce disque a été enregistré en trois jours lors d'un hiver particulièrement rigoureux. Ceci est presque inutile tant cela se ressent dans leur musique. Alone In The Bright Lights Of A Shattered Life apporte un angle nouveau à la musique lente, dépressive et torturée sans toutefois révolutionner le genre. Ce premier album de Library Tapes est malgré tout un compagnon de premier choix pour cet hiver qui s'annonce des plus glacials.

Webzine Mille-Feuilles

2005 is looking likely to be remembered as the year of the piano. With countless artists tickling the ivoriesand Michael Nyman's back catalogue getting the attention it deserves, the piano has become the weapon of choice for the more mellow-headed leftfield. The latest to join the Liberace list is Swedish duo Library Tapes, whose debut album 'Alone In The Bright Lights Of A Shattered Life' lists Max Richter, Lunz and A Silver Mt. Zion as amongst their influences. Comprised of piano, acoustic/electric guitars, balalaika and the a trusty laptop, 'Alone In The Bright Lights...' seems to exist in a distant tundra, with the listener coaxed into embarking on a hugely rewarding journey. Whilst the stiff melodies of opening composition 'Broken Piano Pt.2' are draftily satisfying, it is '...in a safe place...somewhere near your heart...' that really establishes their sound. Not unlike a William Basinski piece, 'In a safe place...' takes an emotionally wrought piano and allows it to languidly meander over a stirring landscape of half-glimpsed sonic sturctures and soundscapes that can't help but make an emotional impact on this listener. Gorgeous.
Boomkat

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Library Tapes - Höstluft (Make Mine Music, 2007)

Library Tapes, the fitting pseudonym of Swedish feller David Wenngren, has over his last two albums crafted a distinctive sound that's won him a sizeable and dedicated audience. Although he's lost the able talents of previous member Per Jardsall, he still manages to craft a record which will no doubt please his followers. Once again we return to the sounds of aged creaking and clicking piano keys, recorded to tape or set against crackling, hissing field recordings to give the illusion of age, the illusion that you're hearing something that was discovered deep in a forgotten basement somewhere. It might sound rather clichéd now with solo piano recordings coming like machinegun fire, but Wenngren has a distinctive touch taking influence from Erik Satie, Goldmund and William Basinski ('Melancholia' to be exact...) and then re-casting the pieces to make them totally his own. In fact the crumbling background noise which is so apparent in his works becomes just as important to the tracks as the piano, and the more you get absorbed into this fizzing and hissing the more you see what Wenngren is attempting to achieve. What he has done with 'Hostluft' is create a small window into another world, a short story or a discarded film reel, and for the duration (a meagre 34 minutes) you are transported there absolutely. Lovely stuff.

Boomkat

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