«Kompisitioner» is a collection of joyful short compositions of Swedish sound artists Kajsa Magnarsson and Marta Forsberg. The Göteborg-based Magnarsson’s music reflects on the present, often on the border between humor and seriousness or reality and fiction. The practice of the Berlin-based Forsberg spans sound design, composition for ensembles, music for dance, sound and light installations, as well as working in different artistic research projects.
Magnarsson and Forsberg have been working together since 2019. In the same year, Magnarsson became a mother and Forsberg moved to Berlin. «Kompisitioner» came out of a need to stay in touch and a strong will to continue working together even though time and space were not on their side. The 13 short and nuanced compositions are a series of short sound ideas and music stories inspired by everyday life, dreams and thoughts. These compositions are sonic abstractions of elusive sentences and words were sent between Stockholm and Berlin, processed and transformed into small, fascinating soundscapes. The album is released as a gatefold double 7 ”vinyl, illustrated by Elin Hjulström Lord and Gustaf Lord, plus a download option. No information is offered about who plays what instrument or devices.
Both Magnarsson and Forsberg focus on language – real, imagined, manipulated and heavily processed – as sound material, and their short compositions offer clever and insightful comments and brief meditations on the way we use language, listen to it or process and reflect on its meanings. Laurie Anderson and her heavily-processed, alter-ego voice and her feminist statements are a strong reference, as the opening «Anthem for a twenty nine year old girl» and «You could also say» tell. But Magnarsson and Forsberg have their own strong sonic identity of their own. They know how to create suggestive and touching soundscapes («Ja, visst gör det ont»), ironic collages («Pingviner och is», «Det var en gång»), dramatic metal anthem («Afterlife»), charged, dance-beats texture («P.A.L.M.E.»). It would be interesting to listen to longer, more complex compositions of this duo.
Eyal Hareuveni
