photo by Daniell Lefebvre
The wintery mysteries / emotional espionage of "Maran och Tallen" by Lyle Washington's eclectic experimental indie duo Susurrus Station (formed by the American artist Jason Breeden and Swedish musician Sara Johanne in 2003 in Stockholm, Sweden), manages to sweep me up in it's vastness even though I don't understand one lick of Swedish. Maybe it is the sort of vintage video game-esque beats, or the falling electronica that feel haunting, like a somehow darkly drawn children's nursery rhymes or the moments of uplifting orchestrations of sound that wash those dark moments away. All this as a sonic framework for Sara's vocal countenance of equal parts beauty and maybe concern, again, I cannot support my emotional context with the lyrical narrative, just everything all at once but blind to the words and, you know, I like that. I like this a lot.
The focus track from Susurrus Station's new 6th full-length, "Mythomania", this is a song that feels like dreaming (for some of us, in another language).
LINER NOTES (excerpted / bracketed):
[The rural Washington-based duo’s 8-song album is a collage of classical counterpoint motifs, rugged beats, postmodern Harry Partch-spirited experimentations, Ennio Morricone guitars, samba batucada grooves, and resonant, reflective lyrics.
“Mythomania is partly inspired by our need to tell stories,” says singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jason Breeden. But also how the impulse goes awry. “It feels like it’s wired into us; something essential to the persistence that keeps us going in the face of the inestimable void.”
Sonic adventurousness and formal musical training course through the music of Susurrus Station. Breeden, who studied photography, film, and painting at the San Francisco Art Institute, is joined by Swedish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Sara Dyberg, a graduate of the Malungsfolkhögskola performing arts school in Dalarna. Dyberg emerged from Stockholm’s vibrant jazz scene. Early on, Breeden and Dyberg bonded over a shared interest in rebetiko, Taraf de Haïdouks, Stina Nordenstam, Dirty Three, and batucada.]
The illusory sense of "Maran och Tallen", especially not understanding Swedish, moves me like a mantric zoetrope, something to behold and approach tentatively like a maze in a forest. The compulsion to investigate the unknown is a particular human one, one that can reap emotional rewards or at times put us in severe peril and thus is the push and pull and I feel that with this track that feels so very filmic.
MORE Liner Notes (excerpted / bracketed):
[The programmed drums on Mythomania presented challenges with fluid tempo changes, which nudged the duo toward a greater emphasis on melody. “I was surprised about how optimistic and poppy sounding the album came out,” Dyberg says. The accessibility extends to the lyrics, as Breeden peeled back some of the abstruseness of the past. “I didn’t want knee-jerk reactions, I wanted to connect,” he says.
Though the concept of an overarching theme was loosely defined at first, Mythomania evolved into a meditation on storytelling itself. Many tracks touch on the universal compulsion to create myth. On “Maran och Tallen,” sung in Swedish, Dyberg explores the folk legend of a spectral, cat-like figure believed to sit on people’s chests in their sleep. The track pairs danceable beats and vintage synth-pop melodies with an interlude in 5/4 time, subverting pop norms. “Maybe Sara has Swedish pop genes,” jokes Breeden.]
Awww yes, to dream. It makes an unbearable life bearable and a bearable life so fucking expansive.
-Robb Donker Curtius
The Chicken Wheel will take you to the AP Go Fund Me- and any amount is so appreciated!
THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM
https://www.instagram.com/aio_soundings
https://www.facebook.com/susurrusstation
https://susurrusstation.bandcamp.com/
https://www.susurrusstation.com/
https://www.youtube.com/@susurrusstation
Everyone has a “story”. Why is that? What compels us to tidy up the mess that is life and shoehorn into a narrative? Furthermore, how much of it all is even true? On Mythomania, their sixth album, Susurrus Station explores our almost obsessive impulse to spin yarns, searching for meaning in myth and memory.
The rural Washington-based duo’s 8-song album is a collage of classical counterpoint motifs, rugged beats, postmodern Harry Partch-spirited experimentations, Ennio Morricone guitars, samba batucada grooves, and resonant, reflective lyrics.
“Mythomania is partly inspired by our need to tell stories,” says singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Jason Breeden. But also how the impulse goes awry. “It feels like it’s wired into us; something essential to the persistence that keeps us going in the face of the inestimable void.”
Sonic adventurousness and formal musical training course through the music of Susurrus Station. Breeden, who studied photography, film, and painting at the San Francisco Art Institute, is joined by Swedish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Sara Dyberg, a graduate of the Malungsfolkhögskola performing arts school in Dalarna. Dyberg emerged from Stockholm’s vibrant jazz scene. Early on, Breeden and Dyberg bonded over a shared interest in rebetiko, Taraf de Haïdouks, Stina Nordenstam, Dirty Three, and batucada.
The band’s name—Susurrus (an onomatopoeic word meaning whispering or rustling) and Station (a nod to the numbing ubiquity of the term)—isn’t directly tied to its sound or lyrics, but hints at the abstract intellectualism found in its music. “I’m inspired by music that makes me think. But I like when things work on different levels,” Dyberg says.
Susurrus Station got its start playing acoustic shows in Sweden in the fertile jazz scene where it had something of a fluid, revolving door membership. These days the band is more defined as a duo with both parties writing music, playing instruments, producing, but Breeden writes the bulk of the lyrics.
The duo’s early recordings emphasized organic instrumentation, but eventually Susurrus Station expanded into a soundscape-driven aesthetic, incorporating field recordings and vintage gear. Mythomania was painstakingly crafted using samplers, programmed drums, and a range of instruments, including electric guitar, violin, keyboards, and traditional drums. Also contributing to Mythomania are Paul Burnum, an obscure-electronics connoisseur and beatmaker; jazz composer and multi-instrumentalist Cory Gray (Old Unconscious); German video artist Astrid Menze; and singer Dan Bejar (Destroyer).
The programmed drums on Mythomania presented challenges with fluid tempo changes, which nudged the duo toward a greater emphasis on melody. “I was surprised about how optimistic and poppy sounding the album came out,” Dyberg says. The accessibility extends to the lyrics, as Breeden peeled back some of the abstruseness of the past. “I didn’t want knee-jerk reactions, I wanted to connect,” he says.
Though the concept of an overarching theme was loosely defined at first, Mythomania evolved into a meditation on storytelling itself. Many tracks touch on the universal compulsion to create myth. On “Maran och Tallen,” sung in Swedish, Dyberg explores the folk legend of a spectral, cat-like figure believed to sit on people’s chests in their sleep. The track pairs danceable beats and vintage synth-pop melodies with an interlude in 5/4 time, subverting pop norms. “Maybe Sara has Swedish pop genes,” jokes Breeden.
The title track is built around a rugged beat Burnum created on his MPC during a session years ago, rediscovered by the duo recently. “When I reached out to him to make sure it was cool if we used the beat, he said ‘no wonder you like it!,’” Dyberg recalls. Turns out embedded in it is a processed sample of her singing. The song’s lyrics offer pointed social commentary, including this standout passage: In pious country towns/Entertaining lurid tales/Enamoured by impressions of impressions of/The writhing of the seven veils/As the waves lap up/Against the splintered hull/Perhaps your magnetism/Yet retains its pull.
Breeden continues the mythological thread on “Seven Veils,” a personal take on the classic tale of Salome, ending in a bachata-style outro. Meanwhile, “Cities of Quartz” borrows its name—but not its narrative—from Mike Davis’s seminal book. “That title is beautiful,” Breeden says, “but I didn’t have any big revelation from the book, so I wrote something that I hope feels universal. I took what I could and ran with it—maybe I’m deluded,” he laughs. The song is a patchwork of sublime slide guitar, grime-y atmospherics, gritty grooves, and dueling male and female vocals.
Susurrus Station, alt folk, folk, indie rock, electronica, alt pop, Washington State based, USA singer-songwriter / musician Jason Breeden, Swedish singer-songwriter / musician Sara Dyberg, "Maran och Tallen",
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