Sven Wunder – Wabi Sabi

From time to time in the record world, there is a release that goes beyond the average shock and amaze in sound that makes listeners lose their minds and sends collectors on the hunt to obtain copies of what obviously will become a future holy grail. One of those releases which is rather new and immediately sold out upon it’s release was launched out of Sweden by Sven Wunder “Doğu Çiçekleri” on the Piano Piano label. The record was such a slice of perfection that attracted Jazz enthusiasts, soundtrack and library LP connoisseurs and open eared music lovers alike that it would be a no brainer to have a follow up which brings us to today’s musical selection and must own by the band.

The official announcement of the upcoming Sven Wunder “Wabi Sabi” album is something that we’ve all been waiting for which once again finds us in a beautiful space and soundscape pulling inspirations from majestic atmospheres to deliver a timeless experience and aural pleasures that sooth the ear.

By welcoming the beauty of imperfection and simplicity, Sven Wunder applies the timeless wisdom of wabi sabi on this musical journey. What you can hear is filtered through Ukiyo-e (which translates as “pictures of the floating world”), which illustrates everyday life, as well as through Japonism, the study of Japanese art, and more specifically its influence on European works. The result is a surface that creates an illusion by sound. The infusion of Min’yō with jazz rock, this hazy scene evokes the landscape of Monet’s ”The Water Lily Pond”, which depicts the painter’s Giverny garden, with a Japanese bridge, bamboo, ginkgo trees and the reflection of the sky in the pond. This illusion constructs both time and space.

The surface of the music, like the canvas of the painting, invents a journey between now and then by interpreting the idiom of folkloric and western art instruments. In this composition, the sound of the Western concert flute, which stretches back to the Renaissance and Baroque periods, evokes the sound of the bamboo-flute (”shakuchachi”), which reached its peak during the Edo period. The guzheng, also known as the Chinese zither, with a more than 2,500 year history, joins traditional Japanese folk melodies with modern pop percussion and 20th century electronic instruments such as the Moog synthesizer, Wurlitzer electric piano and electric bass.

This is the illusion that celebrates the fleeting nature of all things. A journey. A deep inhale and a slow exhale. It has a mix of jazz (both funky and progressive), East Asian and South Asian sounds. The idea of fusing these styles and reframing them with the aesthetic of wabi sabi is to reconnect with nature and concentrate on asymmetries and emphasize ornamentation to generate new ways of looking at the world, here and now.

This record is produced with financial support from the Swedish Arts Council.

Available now via Disk Union and on release soon via Mr. Bongo and Rappcats for the official release date of 5/29/20.