Swedish trio Tape
(keyboardist and trumpeter Tomas Hallonsten with Johan and Andreas Berthling)
crafted the
seductive, minimal, slow-motion and drum-less soundscapes of
Opera (2002) for computer, synthesizer, field recordings and acoustic instruments (guitar, harmonium, melodica, harmonica, zither, piano, flute, accordion, trumpet and percussion).
The acoustic guitar is the dominant voice, as if
John Fahey
had been catapulted
into an electroacoustic chamber concerto.
Bucolic folk meets glitch electronica in
Bell Mountain, whose metronomic guitar evokes the ticking of a clock before melting in liquid digital miasma,
in Feeler, whose nocturnal quiet that gets disturbed by alien events,
and in
Summa, in which an organ introduces a dreamy melody.
Their evanescent form of chamber music yields
Fire Made of Bones for anemic flamenco guitar, unstable drones and spastic horns, as well as
Cookie Drum,
in which a somnolent trumpet peeks through the dense organ syrup.
Moving further into non-music, one encounters
the disorienting trance Longitude (in which this time it's the keyboards that evoke the ticking of a clock) and the
slow, velvety and ethereal Noises From a Hill.
Tape are the trance-y, ambient version of post-rock's neurotic, nonlinear ideology.
While basically subscribing to the same logic, Milieu (2003) feels
somewhat constrained and restrained, both because the
"orchestra" is quite limited (banjo, harmonium, trumpet) and because of
the emphasis on
streamlined melody-centered pieces
(best Golden Twig).
The
whispered magic of the first album remains only in Oak Player and a few other moments.
Electronic composer Andreas Berthling had already released the solo albums 1000-1001 Hz (1999), containing 21 brief pieces, Mengerzeile & Gruenberger (2000), containing the nine-minute Graudenzer, and Tiny Little White Ones (2001).
The EP My Days Are Darker Than Your Nights (2003) was a collaboration between Oren Ambarchi and Johan Berthling.
Operette (2004) collects remixes of songs from Opera.
Tape's trio reached their formal zenith with Rideau (2005), whose five pieces are longer and more fleshed out.
The eleven-minute Sunrefrain is a fragile and sophisticated post-rock fantasia that emerges slowly from a drowsy atmosphere with emotional guitar chords disrupted by a fauna of hostile drones.
In the twelve-minute A Spire guitar and organ engage in a polyrhythmic game of ticking clocks creating minimalist repetition that recalls
Mike Oldfield.
Sand Dunes, the most accessible piece, begins like the remix of a pop-jazz tune of the 1970s and ends in the realm of new-age relaxation.
The languid guitar suspense of the twelve-minute Long Lost Engine organ slowly emanates a melodic organ theme.
Slightly less intellectual and austere than the debut album,
this third work tries to turn the intuitions and sketches of their early days into well-rounded compositions.
Johan Berthling was already playing in jazz quartet Nacka Forum that released Nacka Forum (2003) and Leve Nacka Forum (2005).
Johan Berthling also played in the chamber-pop trio Tiny with vocalist and keyboardist Ellekari Larsson and cellist Leo Svensson, documented on Close Enough (2004), Starring Someone Like You (2006) and Gravity & Grace (2009).
Tomas Hallonsten played trumpet in saxophonist Martin Kuechen's quartet Exploding Customer, documented on At Your Service (2007).
Tape collaborated with Japanese combo Minamo for Birds Of A Feather (2007) and with Japanese duo Tenniscoats for Tan–Tan Therapy (2007).
Tape's Luminarium (2008)
marks mostly a return to the melodic vignettes of Milieu
(Beams, Reperto)
with truly magical and otherworldly atmospheres limited to
Moth Wings and brief fragments.
The
chromatic triumph of the
seven-minute Illuminations is the highlight.
But too much is filler.
Johan Berthling joined trio Ohayo, documented on The State We Are In (2011).
Tape's Revelationes (Hapna, 2011) embraces
new-age languor in Dust and Light,
cocktai-lounge pop-jazz again in The Wild Palms,
and even supermarket background muzak like Gone Gone that couldn't be father
away from their original mission.
The spaced-out atmosphere of Byhalia is not enough to rescue this mediocre project.
Tape's Casino (2014) is an album of
piano-driven new-age music that has no moments of pathos.
It is as plain as it gets. A machine would have created something more emotive.
Johan Berthling (bass) and Tomas Hallonsten (synthesizer, keyboards, trumpet)
continued Tape's mission with Andreas Werliin (drums)
in the trio Time Is a Mountain, that released
Time Is a Mountain (2013), mostly devoted to
old-fashioned jazz-rock (such as Wooden Keys and Zul Iwan) but
with a
funky workout Clear-Out Clouds
and one original take on psychedelic and ethnic rock: Tempi Campi.
The project continued on
II (2015)
and, best of all, on III (2021), which was now diving headfirst into dance music
(Lynx Larynx and especially the ten-minute Realistic in G).
Johan Berthling had a prolific life in the jazz scene:
he worked with reed player Mats Gustafsson in the quartet Boots Brown, documented on Boots Brown (2007) and Dashes to Dashes (2014);
he played in quartet Godforgottens with Paal Nilssen-Love (drums), documented on Never Forgotten Always Remembered (2009);
Nacka Forum returned with Fee Fi Fo Rum (2012), and with new drummer Kresten Osgood, We Are the World (2016) and Sa Stopper Festen (2019);
he played in jazz ensemble Angles 9 that released Injuries (2014), Disappeared Behind the Sun (2017) and A Muted Reality (2022);
Johan Berthling's collaborations include:
Arashi (2014) with • Akira Sakata and Paal Nilssen-Love,
Tongue Tied (2015) with • Oren Ambarchi,
Threnody at the Gates (2017) and A Paradigm of Suspicion (2019) both with Martin Kuechen and Steve Noble,
Ghosted (2022) and Ghosted II (2024) both with Ambarchi and drummer Andreas Werliin.
Both Tomas Hallonsten and Johan Berthling were frequent collaborators of Mats Gustafsson's Fire! Orchestra since 2012.
