HANS APPLEQVIST - naima

(CD, Häpna)

With this very fine release Häpna expands its scope to the structurally more traditional musical area of songwriting, but does so in excellent style and complete fullfillment of all challenges posed by this step. A label so far out on the fringe of modern progressive music in all directions (with releases by Pita, Sinistri, Tape or Guiseppe Ielasi, this is what you’d expect) the only possible way to expand its scope is to start to incorporate areas that are behind it’s former direction and to act upon these fields anew. Or rather, to find music in these fields by musicians re-defining and re-forming these areas. And Hans Appleqvist is just such a composer and producer. “Naima”, his second album for Häpna, is also the first to be presented in a sturdy digipack, so the packaging seems to further underline the importance of this record. Anyway, on “Naima” Appleqvist not only has taken up the venture of fusing song with abstract electronics but of also constructing a song cycle. To be labelled as a real concept album, the leading idea behind “naima” – a unknown or unspecified entity influencing people’s lives – the binding moments between the songs are just too tender and lose. The eleven songs on the record are parted by singular parts of field recordings that denominate real places by their surrounding noise. But the main parts are the songs. If this record were a short story then the field recordings are like small sentences that introduce each new scene, while the songs are the longer parts about the action and thoughts taking place at these places.

The recurring “Naimamelodin” (Naima’s melody) is a wonderful piece of hand picked guitar. The first highlight is the more than beautiful “Underbar var jag ännu” sung by Mahsa Baligh. Appleqvist on various songs sets out to sail on a wonderful melody, accompanied by a guitar or piano only and then adds abrupt and distracting changes, adds striking and harsh samples of string sections or introduces a drumbeat during the last quarter of the song. At times the rhythm is the same nightly shuffle as in “Night on earth”, but the electronics are way more refined and used in an impressive new way. Songs that start sparse and fragile end in a dense mix of layers. The experimentalism of Appleqvist is more focused on structural things, ways to shape songs as they progress, rather than sounds.

It could be discussed if this experimentalism sometimes shoots over bounds, as on “http://www.naimachat.se”, where he uses all kinds of computer-noises, from tapping on a keyboard to the basis Microsoft Office noises. The first time I heard that, I just had to smile, but on repeated listenings this thematic piece unmasked itself as the, to me, aesthetically least pleasing song of all. But then again, I want to be swept away for instance by the beauty of the voices of Iris Kristjansdottir and Katrin Arnkelsdottir in connection to the strange workings going on in the basics behind them on “Du, min Naima”. Basically, Appleqvist approaches songwriting from the viewpoint of modern composing. Or he tried to tackle a vision of electronically composed symphonies without losing the structure of a song. The drastic and energizing “För mig är det int verklingt” has sharply cut samples of a big sized choir (think Carmina Burana) and synthie horns of the same size, but also a load of small noise bits and instruments. An impressive dynamic evolves that way. Throughout the record, the mood and atmosphere of a song might change drastically in an instance, though they all make or at least seem to make sense further on down the road.

This magical and wondrous entity at the centre of all these songs called Naima is another mystery in itself. A women’s figure with a pelican’s head, that infuses people with a dose of confidence and trust into her and gives advise at times of need. (There is obviously no connection to the John Coltrane composition of the same name.) What is she? Where does she come from and what is her aim on earth? Maybe I would be able to come up with an answer if I spoke swedish at least a little bit, but guessing from the music and the field recordings in between, I can offer this: Naima lives where live is. Woods or cities is of no difference to here. She is static and wonderful, multi-dimensional and harmonius. Mainly she is a moral institution visible to only one person at the time and also only tentatively so. There are no details disclosed and all the basic principles are either loose or hidden, so Naima remains open to interpretation, longing and reminiscing. Somewhere between a guardian angel and an ephemeral day dream. You won’t be able to decipher this mystery, but the main beauty of it is the act of pondering anyway.