It’s in the limited edition hand numbered copies shielded by haunting monochrome photography, it’s in the pentagram logo and the true Mayhem reference of Funeral Fog cassette imprint or even the Burzum Bambi T-shirt of African Apparel that Surgeon rocked at Dekmantel last year - but most obviously it lays in the nominal poetry assembled by the artist roster of Northern Electronics, such as Varg, Ulwhednar and D.Å.R.F.D.H.S.
Evocative of deserted and extreme landscapes, “the dark and brooding Northland night woods, where spider webs of rugged dirt roads lead nowhere and where the rotting cadavers have a rich smell” - there creeps an imminent surmise that it’s not the case anymore to look for our Scandinavian Black Metal cravings to be quenched in raw kitchen-recorded corners of the metal sphere because the Lords of Chaos of our times have migrated toward more subtle, electronic shifting grounds.
What these two intertextually connected sonic worlds may have in common is a propensity towards dark mental spaces, a sly demonic vibe in composition - more smooth and clean-cut in the case of the later while messy and ostensive in case of its elderly metallic point of reference - and a coherent sense of style and DIY design (applicable to sound and artwork just as much), more and more conscious and assumed towards the more recent techno ambient meanderings.
While this parallel may seem accidental and synchronic, there’s an essentially postmodern trait about it which reads as a contemporary approach, of reconverting already established aesthetic values by which we already define our deepest darkest miseries. This electronic music visual code of rituals, reflected by the D.Å.R.F.D.H.S. mythology is not one to be taken lightly nor too heavily - it is not an inside joke at all but, likely, it’s not your own apocalypse either if you don’t dance to it.
Dard Å Ranj Från Det Hebbershålska Samfundet or D.Å.R.F.D.H.S. is a Swedish duo comprising of musicians Michel Isorinne and Jonas Rönnberg (Varg). Apart from Northern Electronics label, that Rönnberg is curating alongside with Abdulla Rashim, D.Å.R.F.D.H.S. have been frequenting record labels such as Opal Tapes, Clandestine Records and Dutch label Field Recordings - paving a pattern of cerebral connections not just between various music entities, but also between rhythms and sonic textures.
Of the five records which D.Å.R.F.D.H.S. have put out this year, “Mörkret, kylan, tystnaden & ensamheten” is their first one out at Northern Electronics. The mood it conveys feels like a fiery sequel to the outer-time patina channeled by the cool-shaded “In The Wake Of The Dark Earth” LP. The spaces are endless and the waters run deep, and the “White Sea / Black Sea” piece on “In The Wake..” comes to mind as the precursor of this current album, based on the alternation of aquatic textures, ambient scenery and occasional techno beats, coming and going in tides by the laws of planetary life-death cycles.
Man says: "I am more intelligent than the ocean." This is possible, even more or less true. But the ocean inspires more dread in him than he in the ocean. An excerpt in Comte de Lautreamont’s infamous “Les Chants de Maldoror” glorifies the Ocean as the quintessence of opposites and the ultimate symbol of unfathomable vastness and haecceity a harmonious sphere, always identical and equal to itself, a deeper depth than human heart, to guard all fears and prove the human comprehension vapid and impure. Navigating the nebulous aquatic density of “Mörkret, kylan, tystnaden & ensamheten” is such as this oceanic revery - an imponderable trip, sea-level and below. You may hit waterline barely breathing, levitate above or drown as deep as your consciousness may take you.
I would have personally fancied more intervals such as “Ermitem” along this submerging experience, which stands out as the more rhythmic and precise track, being both murky and hyaline as it kicks off putting your body into an entrancing motion. Shortly after I waved this track goodbye sweeping my mermaid tail towards moodier waters, I didn’t think of it as much because there is a lot to see and “Mörkret, kylan, tystnaden & ensamheten” has all the patience to unfurl it.
