#stefanchristensen

Stefan Christensen, The Upcoming Flame (Bruit Direct Disques, 2019)

I get it, you might not be in the mood for a record that sounds as sad and desolate as this one, but listen here: music is more than a mood. Sometimes the fact that a record actually sounds like that time you were so depressed you stayed up all night, not even drinking or anything, and at sunrise you picked up the guitar and started strumming it aimlessly, wondering what is IT, the thing, the big thing, what is it, what’s the point of it and why am I asking if I don’t even know the question, and all of a sudden you kinda liked the music you were playing, and you had the funny thought of recording songs while you were in that mood because maybe that was you at the most creative and loose, laughed and forgot about it, maybe the fact that this record kinda sounds like that makes the sad mood overwhelming.

But there’s more to The Upcoming Flame: you’ve got the psychedelic repetition of songs like “Arrows” or the ‘rocking’ “Unkempt Power”, tapes and field recordings and weird eerie noises that mix with the guitar (this album is mostly guitar: strummed, scraped, feeding back, gently picked in seemingly improvised but endlessly fascinating patterns), sometimes taking the forefront of the recording, other times just creating a dusty, dirty backdrop. Christensen’s vocals are sparse, stark, and he sounds like a weary mystic who found his place in quiet, contemplative, peaceful hopelessness.

It’s a lo-fi, intimate and evocative journey of an album. It’s not a fun journey, but it can be uplifting just for the sheer beauty of the compositions (close your eyes during “Substitution Days” and take it in, but watch out for the sudden ending). When I talk to people about it, and I do, I mention Dead C, Pink Reason, Jim Shepard. They go “That good?” and I say “You decide” because you have to make the effort for fuck’s sake.

Click here to listen to The Upcoming Flame on Bandcamp.