jeanette sollén: ripe when yields to gentle pressure

Dark Companion come up roses again with dazzling, never-before-heard, haunting compositions and songs by Jeanette Sollén, compiled from her archive specifically for this album. Transparent emerald green audiophile vinyl; Edition of 300 (hand-numbered). Sollén on the collection: "My first recordings were on an old tape recorder in my childhood bedroom. I spent a lot of time with that machine. Listening to the radio and pressing the green and red buttons when something I liked came on. And I seemed to have liked a lot. One tape I still have, from when I was about six, contains an eclectic aural tapestry filled with fragments from all kinds of music. And then, in the middle of some hit song, my own singing and chatting appears. My fascination with the machine grew and I soon began to record interviews with family, friends, and neighbors. Even random people passing in the streets. I also started recording my own songs in a more organized way, on separate cassettes labeled 'My songs'. At around nine years of age I recorded 'Stars in Space'. I remember it very clearly. I'd written the lyrics in English, and the recording contained various sound effects I'd added while singing, such as rhythmically stomping in gravel. The first line went: 'Space is a big black world, full of fire, we call them staaaaars -- Stars in space, in space, in space, in space...' Looking back on these memories, I can safely say that not much has changed. The media might be different, but the recording machine is still my favorite toy. Voice and ambient sounds are still my main material. And the human experience in this mesmerizing, communicating universe, is still my topic of choice."