The Norwegian, Oslo-based vocal duo Propan -Ina Sagstuen and Natali Abrahamsen Garner – becomes an eight-strong ensemble of strings, winds, percussion, voices, and electronics by the name Propanions for its fourth album, «Swagger». The Propanions include a close circle of musicians from local alternative bands like Skadedyr, Torstein Ekspress, Moskus, Oker and Monkey Plot with Swedish guitarist Anton Toorell.

«Swagger» is based on a work commissioned in 2016 by Femme Brutal, a feminist booking and DJ collective. It received its world premiere at Oslo’s Parkteater, as part of the 2016 Femme Brutal Festival. The original score included choreographic movements performed live by musicians and a detailed lighting design. The suggestive cover art, Shining Wave (detail), was made by Norwegian textile artist Hanne Friis.

«Swagger» blends pre-scored and improvised content and is faithful to the colorful and always eccentric electroacoustic sonic vision of Propan. It blends celestial, seductive voices with the soft sound of tuning forks, odd electronic beats with enigmatic texts, playful and sensual melodies, and abstract and raw textual noises with field recordings. Somehow, Propan and the happy gang of Propanions manage to weave these seemingly distant threads into a mostly shiny but weird series of eclectic and totally left-off-center songs, that are only sonic sorcerers like Sagstuen and Garner can imagine. And these arresting songs do offer enough spells for a better, more optimist and humane world, devoid of destructive and violent macho-fueled tendencies.

Eyal Hareuveni

Ina Sagstuen (v, effects), Natali Abrahamsen Garner (v, effects), Torstein Lavik Larsen (tp), Anja Lauvdal (synth), Fredrik Rasten (ac.g), Anton Toorell (el.g), Magnus Skavhaug Nergaard (b), Jan Martin Gismervik (dr, perc)