“Raindrops falling from the sky
Watch the people passing by”
Subverting the seemingly simplistic, the basic, the automatically relatable, the imagery normally associated with dreamy, quiet afternoons, to create a sense of dread and loneliness, creeping chills, using the grim weather to one’s own advantage: Tor Lundvall is adept at subdued intensity, either through his oil paintings (reminds me a little of Peter Doig) or dimly lit ambient soundscapes drenched in reverb. Last year, he released an impressionist LP titled The Shipyard that was so appropriately foggy and grey I stumbled over the corner of my bed and knocked down my bookshelf trying to open the window. “City Rain” is on Tor’s album Sleeping and Hiding, which is being re-released, along with four other of his out-of-print albums, on a 5CD remastered set called Structures and Solitude out November 5, making this his second box set released via Dais Records. The first line of “City Rain” might lead some to believe that Lundvall is cheerfully strolling through the puddles like a black and white musical, and the lyric has been quoted here for the same reason Lundvall employed it: to create a false sense of security. Have you ever woken up for a dream and momentarily mistook it for the events of the previous night? Did you question whether or not it was even a dream?
“Spinning flowers in the stream
Drowning slowly in the dream”
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• Tor Lundvall: http://www.torlundvall.com/news.html
• Dais Records: http://www.daisrecords.com