Fredrik Klingwall - The Resilience (Last Entertainment)
Fredrik Klingwall is a man I really wouldn’t like to meet. Even worse on a dark night.
What goes on in this man’s mind is chilling, eerie, nightmarish and furiously beast-like. Luckily for us, he doesn’t live out his darkest fantasies in reality because if his music is anything to go by, the lights would always stay on, shower curtains would be banned and the cutlery draw would be glued permanently shut. This man emits pure evil, and I for one love the fact that he channels his desires through music.
In all seriousness, the music is as dark as it gets. A Beethoven meets Coil (think Moonlight Sonata but more morbid) for the neoclassical world.
Klingwall makes me feel uneasy, like Freddy Krueger-length fingers dragged down a blackboard in slow motion. All of his music being doom laden minor key pianos, deep synth growls and violins slashing through the air. Fast then slow, an air of mystery. A sense of unease as if something is creeping up behind you. I don’t know what it is but something is there. Trust me.
I dread to think what Klingwall’s influences are but I get the nasty impression that it may have been along the lines of many horror soundtracks and all manner of prurient desires. The Exorcist, Halloween, Psycho and The Ring but to name a few.
The music is classical in the piano sense but is much more orientated at being unimaginably unnerving. People listen to classical music to relax while people who listen to Fredrik Klingwall will to be frightened to death. This is music that makes you feel alive but only because you feel your life may end at any moment.
The myriad of sound created by this solo artist is a testament to this man’s genius.
Klingwall has composed soundtracks of unfathomable fear that felt as if you were waking up and gasping for breath.
I received two CDs and have played them late at night and I love the way the albums progress and become darker as each new track begins, daring you to look over your shoulder.
Foreboding is an adjective that encapsulates Fredrik Klingwall's sound - death marches and funeral rhythms that could throw a blanket of bleakness on the brightest of days.
I for one love this music to death.
8/10
Nicky