boomkat

"Coming only moments after the lovely (and now long gone) EP 'D+A', this is the second full-length album from Sweden's Dag Rosenqvist aka Jasper TX. Following-up the hugely acclaimed 'I'll Be Long Gone When my Light Reaches You' was never going to be easy, but somehow Dag has rustled together the perfect sequel, continuing themes he only began to explore, throwing new ideas into the mix and showing serious development as an artist. I think the secret to Dag's sound is his honesty - everything you hear is 'as it is', he avoids overdone computer effects in favour of crumbling tape recordings and the buzzing of badly wired circuit boards and everything is recorded on his trusty 8-track machine. It's this 'as it is' sentiment that separates for me his work and the work of so many attempting a similar sound - we've no shortage of lonely guitarists making music for barely-seen horizons and gauzy sunsets, but where Dag differs is that the music sounds somehow as old as time. His recording style, as dirty and as 'lo-fi' as it might be, sounds as if the tracks have been dubbed to a wax plate and buried under the sea for an eternity before being discovered by visiting explorers. It's as if you're listening to transmissions from times past or listening to the audio equivalent of damaged black and white photos falling out of a browned photo-book. The record begins with 'Better Days to Come', a song as hopeful as the title, one which begins with the dust and flicker of ancient tape recordings before building into something altogether more life-affirming with organ, guitar and glockenspiel. Elsewhere Dag follows this theme of distance and memory with the echoing field recordings in 'Destroy Detroit' and the endangered clattering dronescape of 'Nightbirds' (probably the albums most haunting moment, listen for the phonecall moment.), but the record truly comes into it's own with it's final piece, the 20 minute 'Some Things Broken, Some Things Lost'. With this track Dag does what many artists try a lifetime to achieve, he comes up with a piece of music that totally defines him as an artist - this is Jasper TX in one, simple moment. With guitar, touching field recordings and glorious, triumphant drones Dag creates a segment of pure musical perfection - something like Windy and Carl, Stars of the Lid, Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Machinefabriek and Cliff Martinez all rolled into one and in that it manages to be a totally singular experience. Here is an artist unafraid to express himself, unafraid to take risks and able to rise to the challenges of making music in a post millennial slump - it's music that makes us glad we're here. Absolutely stunning stuff, and totally unmissable!"

xlr8r

"As the title indicates, Jasper TX's follow up to 2005's I'll Be Long Gone Before My Light Reaches You, is, well, dark. Featuring cinematic guitar ambience, pretty piano accompaniments, and weird-ass field recordings, A Darkness shreds without actually shredding at all."

smallfish

"Jasper TX's sound is developing nicely and this superb 6-track CD is formed from loose arrangements of guitars, electronics and field recordings. Genuinely beautiful at times with simple, lilting melodic components and a real grace and beauty coupled with a sensibly abstract layer of manipulated sound which lurks in the background. Gorgeously put together and full of charm, this one comes recommended."

forced exposure

"After a wait only mildly eased with collaborations, compilation appearances and a super-limited 3" CD, Jasper TX is finally back with another full-length solo release. As the world basked in the beauty of his debut, I'll Be Long Gone Before My Light Reaches You, Dag Rosenqvist (as Jasper TX is known to his friends) was busying himself in his Gothenburg-based studio with A Darkness, the virgin release from Lidar Productions. Whereas his debut focused on light and love, this is a far more shaded affair. The bleak sounds of field recordings and low, hypnotic drones hide in the shadows amongst flourishes of guitar and piano as you fall into the abyss of sound that Rosenqvist crafts wisely and accurately. Intermittently, the clouds break and sun fills the world that Jasper TX has created. 'Destroy Detroit (The Sign of Buildings Never Built)' starts with the howling wind of a hundred broken tape-recorders and a looped voice which nods towards Steve Reich's sampling masterpiece 'Come Out,' but after four minutes a guitar emerges from the darkness, and as it plays its introverted melody the dim hue evolves into glorious neon light. The degraded sounds and dilapidated fuzz that frames this album disappear entirely for 'Winter/Midnight/Suicide,' where Dag molds himself into a more traditional post-rock band for just under five minutes of guitar-led bliss, creating a piece that even Godspeed You! Black Emperor would be proud of. The album continues as it started, mixing solemn hiss with a blur of delicately caressed acoustic instrumentation, until you find yourself on the centerpiece and last track of the album. Over its twenty-one minute length, 'Some Things Broken, Some Things Lost' encapsulates every life-affirming emotion that you could never find the words to describe. It sings a wordless song of hope and optimism, harmoniously combining sounds that are closer to sentiments than they are instruments. This is music that makes the whole world fall into place. As you sink into a comfortable chair and listen, you can't help but feel quietly ecstatic. With A Darkness, Jasper TX is soundtracking memories that

aquarius records

"Brand new full length from one of our favorite new outfits, the strangely named Jasper TX, the work of one man, a Mr. Dag Rosenqvist, who as you might have presumed, is not, in fact from Texas. And actually, based on the music of Jasper TX, it's a bit difficult to even begin to guess where Mr. Rosenqvist hails from. One minute we're tempted to suggest some tiny village in the Alps, surrounded on all sides by snowy peaks and lush verdant forests. Moments later, we'd guess he was from the desert, existing amidst miles and miles of wide open space, the sky threatening to swallow the world whole. Another theory would be that Jasper TX comes from nowhere, or at least, nowhere we would recognize, an alternate universe perhaps, and alien land, somewhere different, dark, mysterious, separated from our world by a thin gauzy veil, so as we glimpse into that world we see and hear a reflection of our world, but one that is slightly skewed, obfuscated, fuzzy and blurry and indistinct. Which is precisely why we seem to love it so much.
Like many of his sonic brethren, Rosenqvist takes simple bits of pop music, and pulls them apart, wrapping them in bits of crackle and hum, and setting them amidst soft warm melodies and dreamy shimmering soundscapes. A sort of abstract, spaced out ambient post rock might come close. But it's not really that simple to describe. It's effervescent, weightless, dreamlike, but at the same time, dark and heavy and intense. Each song a struggle between the two. A subtle tension that imbues the songs with emotion and urgency, even at their most blissed out and laid back.

unruhr

"(???)..........(!): michael rother, "blauer regen". die assoziation war sofort da, der name etwas später. und dann kommt auch noch tatsächlich so was wie (elektronischer?) regen am ende des stücks.......

dag rosenqvist als jasper tx aus schweden (obwohl jasper, tx, eine stadt in texas, us, ist) mit seiner neuen veröffentlichung auf lidar aus dortmund, d. und bitte die assoziation oben nicht zu wörtlich nehmen; das hier ist eigenständig, wenngleich "better days to come", das besagte stück tatsächlich so etwas wie eine fortschreibung von rothers "blauer regen" sein könnte. eine gewisse verhangene melancholie ohne düsternis; keine depression, eher eine leichte traurigkeit, wechselweise mit den mitteln einer (soundlich und spieltechnisch identifizierbaren) gitarre plus keys über drumbox, nicht unähnlich beef terminal (falls den; auch ein einsamer streiter wie jasper tx, jemand kennt). oder aber als drone-experiment-soundscape ohne rhythmik mit anklängen an geräuschmusik und in dieser form z.b. auch auf drone-records oder exovo denkbar. erstaunlicher- und glücklicherweise in der gesamtschau viel stärker im zusammenklang als in diesen worten und bevor man/frau sich ob des unbeschwerten frühlingswetters veranlasst fühlt, herrn rosenqvist zuzurufen "mach' mal party", lässt er uns mit dem letzten stück der "a darkness", dem mehr als 21 minuten langen "some things broken, some things lost" mit seinem tour-de-force-ritt durch alle spielarten des ambient mal eben sprachlos zurück. zurecht am ende der platte, als konklusion des ganzen; vom spielerischen gestus und von der stimmung (bzw. besser: den stimmungen)."

loop

"This is the second album of Swedish Dag Rosenqvist aka Jasper TX, after his debut album ‘I'll be Long Gone Before my Light Reaches You’ [Lampse, 2005], furthermore he has released the three inches ‘So Now We’re Ghosts no More’ [Kning Disk] and make an appearance on Miasmah’s netlabel’ ‘Silva’ compilation.

On ‘A Darkness’ we find well-known places by those artists who share the same interest for the combination of acoustic and analogue instruments.

Here we can listen to a melancholic guitar that has enough protagonism, drones that scatters their magnetism in vast spaces and field recordings that create intimate scenes.

www.lidar-productions.net and www.myspace.com/jaspertx "

groovesmag

"The sophomore long-player from Sweden’s Jasper TX (a.k.a. Dag Rosenqvist) is a chilling and bleak series of lengthy compositions combining skeletal guitar phrases with manipulated field recordings and electronic drones. The music of Jasper TX falls somewhere between the vinyl assemblages of Philip Jeck and the wintry vignettes of like-minded fellow countrymen Library Tapes. Slightly less spare than its predecessor Ill Be Long Gone Before My Light Reaches You, and significantly darker in tone, A Darkness is rife with deep bass rumblings, piercing shards of noise, and subtle found sounds, each centered around Rosenqvist’s melancholy, arpeggiated guitar textures.

A Darkness opens with “Better Days,” one of the record’s more spartan pieces. The track’s eerie scrapings give way to ominous buzzing drones and crumbling static that suggest the amplified recordings of distant rural power lines. This incidental noise eventually becomes supplanted by softly rendered guitar and a haunting keyboard melody, until the piece ultimately ends as it begins, becoming again engulfed in static. “Destroy Detroit (The Sign of Buildings Never Built)” commences on a menacing note, with low-end drones and what sounds like an isolated radio transmission that is looped and programmed in such a way as to form the rhythmic backbone of the piece. The track’s coda is a monumentally expressive and affecting keyboard figure that, in conjunction with Rosenqvist’s guitar, achieves a level of pathos that carries with it almost tragic overtones.

The album’s closer, “Some Things Broken, Some Things Lost,” is a near-masterpiece of extended, glacially evolving drone patterns characterized by a complexity that is almost anomalous in the genre. The track ends on a sadly wistful acoustic note with a gently picked guitar melody capable of embedding itself deep within the consciousness of the listener. On the whole, the disc’s improvisational component infuses it with a refreshing spontaneity that complements the predetermined structure of Rosenqvist’s keyboard and guitar melodies and coalesces into a stirringly inspired amalgamation of sound. A Darkness is a deeply moody yet intensely rewarding work of experimental electronic composition and extemporaneous sound design."

intro

"Jasper ist ein hübscher skandinavischer Vorname. Jasper ist aber auch ein Ort in Texas, in dem einer der berühmtesten rassistisch motivierten Morde der letzten zehn Jahre stattfand. Und Jasper TX ist die intime Spielfläche für den Schweden Dag Rosenqvist, auf der er wundervolle, experimentelle und doch atmosphärisch sehr stimmige Soundscapes ausbreitet. Eine Auswahl daraus ist jetzt als „A Darkness“ erschienen. Es sind sechs sehr ruhige Tracks mit mehrheitlich düsterer, aber komplexer Stimmung und vielen sehr passenden Soundideen. Referenzen aus dem erweiterten Popkontext könnten Constellation-Produktionen oder Oren Ambarchi gewesen sein, wobei Jasper sowohl auf Gitarrenriffs als auch auf Popstrukturen komplett verzichtet. Stattdessen verformt er seine Sounds über große Zeiträume, fügt klangliche Reize verschiedenster Art ein und versteift sich doch auf Stimmungen, die sich eher organisch als artifiziell anfühlen. Auf jeden Fall ist „A Darkness“ eine großartige Experimentalplatte, die in entsprechenden internationalen Kreisen genauso angesehen wäre wie in unserem kleinen Heimspiel."

etherreal

On parlait il y a quelques jours de Vintermusic, collaboration entre Jasper TX et Machinefabriek, voici le deuxième album du suédois Dag Rosenqvist, récemment sorti sur un nouveau label allemand.

Ceux qui connaissent déjà le travail de Jasper TX ne seront pas dépaysés. Tous les éléments qui ont pu faire le succès de son premier album sont convoqués sur ce deuxième opus qui confirme donc la voie choisie. Quelque part entre post-rock et ambient, cette dernière composante restant à notre sens la dominante, Dag Rosenqvist a tendance à fuir la facilité en intégrant des éléments qui d’une part ne sont pas accrocheurs, mais qui peuvent même rendre l’écoute difficile. Ainsi l’intro de Better Days to Come laisse à penser que le Suédois a changé de registre. Mais après ces bruitages/field recordings, la guitare, alanguie et claire, prend le relais en plusieurs couches, doublée de quelques tintements. On retrouve alors ce post-rock ambient ultra-mélancolique et sombre, comme le laissait supposer le titre de l’album.

L’artiste joue beaucoup sur le contraste entre ses field recordings, souvent durs, agressifs, et une musique apaisante, comme si celle-ci était un moyen de rendre la vie, le quotidien, plus facile. Destroy Detroit débute ainsi par un souffle grave, déformé, saturé, on se croirait dans un avion, puis une voix tourne en boucle, comme issue d’un haut-parleur. La musique enchaîne alors, guitares limpides, accompagnements de clavier, pour un titre presque lumineux.

Si naturellement, la musique de Jasper TX invite à la rêverie, l’effet d’écho apporté aux notes de Winter/Midnight/Suicide frise l’hypnotisme. L’instrumentation est ici plus riche, les notes de guitares sont variées, un mélodica sert l’accompagnement, et comme pour sa collaboration avec Machinefabriek, l’apparition d’éléments rythmiques relève joliment le tout.

Deux titres un peu particuliers enfin puisque d’une durée de 14 et 21mn. Jasper TX prend ici le temps d’expérimenter, les bruitages électroniques sont très présents, donnant l’impression de "s’amuser" avec son micro qu’il passerait sur divers objets, sur fond de drones inquiétants, crépitements, grincements lointains d’un portail, et quand les instruments acoustiques prennent le relais, c’est par des micro notes de piano et cordes, comme des cliquetis de gouttes d’eau qui dégringolent, sans recherche mélodique particulière, se rapprochant ainsi de la musique contemporaine. Sur Some Things Broken, Some Things Lost, son travail est beaucoup plus classique, alternant expérimentations à base de field recordings, strates de guitares soyeuses et textures granuleuses.

Le genre d’album dans lequel on prend plaisir à se laisser aller. Envoûtant, A Darkness devrait ravir les fans de la première heure et séduire tout fan d’ambient électronique.

(7 out of 8 points)

textura

Coming after the Lampse release I'll Be Long Gone When my Light Reaches You, A Darkness is Jasper TX's (Sweden's Dag Rosenqvist) second full-length as well as the virgin release from Lidar. Produced in his Gothenburg-based studio, the new collection offers a compelling fusion of delicate guitar and piano melodies and atmospheric drones, with much of it drenched in the crackle and hiss of dusty tape recordings. Field recordings give the material a widened scope and root it in decaying atmospheres while chiming electric guitars illuminate the material's often dark character. It's an album of contrasts in another sense too, as short pieces like the ambient interlude “Sleep; Ghosts” alternate with two epics, the quarter-hour “Nightbirds” and twenty-one-minute “Some Things Broken, Some Things Lost.”

“Better Days to Come” rises from its ashes to become a lyrical guitar setting that's eventually rendered more stately with the addition of organ and glockenspiel. “Destroy Detroit (The Sign of Buildings Never Built)” begins with gaseous rumble and churn before a looped voice pierces the machine-like haze; as the dense mass intensifies, an elegiac guitar melody gradually casts the grime aside altogether, allowing keyboards to bathe the guitar in glorious sunlight. The even prettier “Winter/Midnight/Suicide” wends a straighter post-rock path where guitars echo over slowly lurching rhythms and the bright wheeze of harmonica-like accents. The nightmarish, spectral drone “Nightbirds” documents the album's most uncompromising plunge into abstraction; it takes no great effort to imagine souls drifting across the river Styx as they make their way to Hades (so long as one ignores the phone call), though the piece assumes a slightly more earthly ambiance with the advent of swarms of what sound like plucked piano strings. As memorable as it is, the album's towering achievement is its closer, “Some Things Broken, Some Things Lost” which segues from ghostly slumber to delicate acoustic guitar playing to becalmed tones that shimmer in a manner reminiscent of Stars of the Lid. The piece incrementally builds towards a remarkable climax, after which it slowly decompresses and exits with a peaceful coda so lovely it's ravishing.