John Alexander Ericson - Songs from the White Sea [Album]

Kalinkaland , WarsawRecordings

August 24, 2009, 08:15 AM

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Using every possible break from Alberta Cross, the English / Swedish band who supported Oasis and The Shins among others, had given him, John Alexander Ericson still needed five years of break times to finish what he started: 'Songs from the White Sea'. Hiding in his small cottage in Wales and only using an acoustic guitar and a Moog synthesizer, the result is very intimate, atmospheric and above all, alienating.

Opener 'Blinded by Highways' and 'Always Leave Them Wanting More, Johanna' have very much in common with the work of Joy Division and its contemporaries, in a way that it sounds very dark, simple and sung almost indifferently, as if he is completely helpless and lost within his own world. Thanks to the sober production the songs tend to be very overwhelming and not very optimistic. Even piano ballad 'Mary Song', with its heavily echoed voices, sounds like someone disturbed by love instead of captured.

After half an album its unconventionality seems to take place for a slightly more song focused direction though. Ericson stays distracted and diffused, but 'Let It All Come' for example also shows some signs of gospel influences, albeit the most disturbed ode to God ever. 'In the Eleventh Hour' sounds like a classic unreleased R.E.M. b-side with his falsetto background voice eternally repeating the same melody and 'The World is Waiting' even sound a little bit optimistic.

The sparse arrangements and the melancholic atmosphere comes close to the early eighties doom scene envisioned by Ian Curtis and his friends and this music could have easily been the soundtrack for a Joy Division film. But since this is definitely a production and not a song compilation, the novelty and the excitement wears of after the first half of the album.

As is often the case with productions like this, it's as much about music as it is about experiencing the music. The atmosphere Ericson creates could mean the world to you, but if you're not at the same level as him, this is not going to be your album of the year. But even considering that, just for its production it's definitely worth listening to.

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