Johan Berthling - Björnhorn [Thanatosis Produktion 012]

Put out on the circuit via Stockholm-based Avantgarde-imprint Thanatosis Produktion on April 20th, 2k22 is "Björnhorn", the full length album debut by Swedish bass player Johan Berthling who's taking us on a seven tracks and roughly 37 minutes spanning sonic journey on this hand-numbered CD release which is limited to a total of 100 copies worldwide. Fully focusing on the double bass as his instrument of choice and with all but one track being named "Björnhorn" Johan Berthling provides a quite far out and partially off-kilter vision of a contemporary double bass performance, going from raw, powerful and untamed bow treatments to tenderly plugged strings of a dark'ish, minimalist, yet spatial and atmospheric quality ("Björnhorn II") via brooding and scraping DarkJazz / DarkAmbient-leaning experimentalisms ("Björnhorn III") as well as sustained, unsettling Desert Drone ("Björnhorn IV") and things way beyond, including Desert Blues references in ("Björnhorn V") which will surely appear to a probably limited, yet well dedicated Avantgarde audience for a reason. If this is you - go and check this one out.

Album artwork on Instagram!