mats erlandsson: valentina tereshkova

Valentina Tereshkova is the debut LP by Swedish musician Mats Erlandsson. Erlandsson is an electronic composer and musician based in Stockholm, where, in addition to his artistic activities, he works as a studio assistant at Elektronmusikstudion (EMS). A student of music since age 10, Erlandsson holds a master's degree in composition from the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. While mainly focused on solo electronic music, he has also composed music for dance and chamber ensembles as well as work for live electronics together with various collaborators. On June 16, 1963, Valentina Tereshkova became the first woman to fly in space. She spent two days and 22 hours alone in space, manually operating the Soviet spacecraft Vostok 6. Erlandsson's Valentina Tereshkova is a record made up of six pieces of electroacoustic music. It would be easy to argue that the Valentina of the Soviet space mission and the Valentina of Erlandsson's record are different characters all together, but there is a feeling of spatiality in Erlandsson's music that one could speculate is not unlike that of being in a vessel like Vostok 6 -- a small room surrounded by infinite space, and, maybe most importantly, a room that allows for just one person. Erlandsson is a craftsman, a quality most keenly felt in the focused structure of his drone pieces. This is reflexive, heavy-hearted music that almost cynically dissects itself for the listener; the pieces themselves apologize for their melancholia with their compositional brilliance. A stunning debut of a strong new voice in Scandinavian electronic music.