The Austrian trio SWEDEK presents itself as «a container for experimental music activities in the field of free improvisation». The trio features Viennese guitarist and electronics player Wernfried Lackner; fellow Viennese bassist Dieter Mattersdorfer; and Graz-based drummer-percussionist Helmut Kaplan, who is also a multimedia artist working across comics, sound, and installation.

M * L * K is SWEDEK’s third album, and it was recorded at Atelier Leitnergasse in Graz in July 2023, with no overdubs. This uncompromising, experimental unit employs its classic rock instrumentation to search for uncharted, unfamiliar, dark, and thorny sonic territories and explore loose song structures, consistently condensed, dissolved, and recomposed.

Fellow Austrian, Graz-based noise artist Oswald Berthold, who collaborated with SWEDEK on the debut self-titled album and the EP Briko (2021, 2023), contributed liner notes that warn the occasional listeners to manage their expectations. «This piece of music has no structure as you would like to have it, no matter your background. Nothing to cling to, restlessly moving, almost no sound like another». Still, the free improvised, stubborn, and quite reckless, sound-oriented process of searching and experimenting with textures, dynamics, assembling, and reassembling sounds is worth your attention, despite Berthold’s warning that all this chaotic moving forward motion is done «without introspection».

Eyal Hareuveni

Wernfried Lackner (electric guitar, computer), Dieter Mattersdorfer (electric bass), Helmut Kaplan (drums, percussion)