Svin - Svin
by Erick Mertz
published: 21 / 5 / 2015

Label:
Pony Records
Format: CD
intro
Disorientating self-titled album from Danish rock and jazz avant-garde experimentalists, Svin
You can look at Svin’s self-titled album one of two ways. Either it’s a melancholic, chaotic mess of horns and guitars, or it’s a brilliant hotchpotch of experimental jazz. The Danish band’s debut, 'Heimat', came out in 2008, and since then they have steadily built global recognition for their risk taking. 'Svin' is no different, a staggering array of bold sound into each of the six tracks, percussion crashes, oriental guitar lines and blaring trumpets exploding in the mix. What I’m describing sounds disorienting, and it certainly feels that way, taken on the nose. Taken in deep, however, its affect is as wonderfully arresting as anything I’ve come across in recent days. The quartet is adept at crafting deep, lasting mood. I was all over the map, traveling further internally than I could adequately remark, from spectral, fantasy battlefields on 'Maharja' and 'Arktis' to the grim, pre-dawn reflections of 'Alt' which belongs as exit music for the saddest movie ever made. Something so brief has no business being this intense, yet 'Svin' never relents. Driving to the album’s too soon end is the sparse, open-ended 'Fede Piger', a culmination for their keen sense of improvisation. The song opens wide with a quiet, spare middle section quiet before erupting into nothing. Contrivance isn’t a word to describe 'Svin'. Find the antonym for that word and you’re onto something. Heart rending. Singular. Recanting the opening statement. 'Svin' isn’t an either/or proposition. It is delightfully, sadly and beautifully both.
Track Listing:-
1 Maharaja2 Arktis
3 Alt
4 F**k John
5 Satan
6 Fede Piger
Band Links:-
http://www.svin-music.com/http://svin.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/SVINmusic
https://twitter.com/svinmusic
Label Links:-
http://ponyrec.com/soundcloud
most viewed articles
current edition
Carl Ewens - David Bowie 1964 to 1982 On Track: Every Album, Every SongArmory Show - Interview with Richard Jobson
John McKay - Interview
Colin Blunstone - Thalia Hall, Chicago, 16/7/2025
Billie Eilish - O2 Arena, London, 10/7/2025
Bathers - Photoscapes 1
Loft - Interview
Visor Fest - Valencia, Spain, 26/9/2025...27/9/2025
Sir Tim Rice - Interview
Robert Forster - Interview
most viewed reviews
current edition
Davey Woodward - Mumbo in the JumboSick Man of Europe - The Sick Man of Europe
Lucy Spraggan - Other Sides of the Moon
Amy Macdonald - Is This What You've Been Waiting For?
Phew, Erika Kobayashi,, Dieter Moebius - Radium Girls
Suzanne Vega - Flying With Angels
Bush - I Beat Loneliness
Alice Cooper - The Revenge of Alice Cooper
Cynthia Erivo - I Forgive You
Blueboy - 2
Pennyblackmusic Regular Contributors
Adrian Janes
Amanda J. Window
Andrew Twambley
Anthony Dhanendran
Benjamin Howarth
Cila Warncke
Daniel Cressey
Darren Aston
Dastardly
Dave Goodwin
Denzil Watson
Dominic B. Simpson
Eoghan Lyng
Fiona Hutchings
Harry Sherriff
Helen Tipping
Jamie Rowland
John Clarkson
Julie Cruickshank
Kimberly Bright
Lisa Torem
Maarten Schiethart