Tonbruket - Masters of Fog (2019)

What lasts long is usually good … sometimes better. Tonbruket agrees. For the past 10 years, the four Swedes have been making music together and are now presenting their sixth album: On »Masters of Fog« the »Klangfabrik«, as the band name translates into German, ignites a musical smokescreen that blurs the genres. Tonbruket indulge in intoxication and the imagination of the senses. A roller coaster ride of the intensities and constant change of the musical aggregate states - exciting and extremely enthralling. Fits in no drawer - and is fun.

When Tonbruket was founded in 2009, it was a follow-up to the legendary trio e.s.t., whose leader Esbjörn Svensson had been killed in tragic circumstances the year before. Bassist Dan Berglund brought with him the stylistic frankness and exploratory curiosity that he, as a member of e.s.t. had worn around the world in the decade and a half before that. But Tonbruket was from the beginning a formation of four equals with different musical backgrounds. Guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Johan Lindström masters almost every string instrument. He is a Tonpoet beyond compare, a musical Caspar David Friedrich, whose wealth of timbres and mood knows no bounds. Keyboarder Martin Hederos has already earned a name in The Soundtracks Of Our Lives, one of the most prominent Swedish rock bands. In duo with singer Matthias Hellberg, he also covert on two very introverted albums sensationally through the history of rock. Fourth in the league is drummer Andreas Werliin, who caused a sensation throughout Europe with the provocative vocal-drums duo Wildbirds & Peacedrums and now in Mats Gustafsson's Trio Fire! a thrilling mixture of free jazz and hardcore. That such a mix of personalities works at all is due to the will and ability of all four protagonists to unconditionally engage with the band without ever pushing their own ego.

On the albums "Tonbruket" (2010), "Dig It To The End" (2011), "Nubium Swimtrip" (2013), "Forevergreens" (2016) and "Live Salvation" (2018), the four persuaders describe a journey starting from the sources of jazz and extending into a delta of prog rock, americana, psychedelic, north african music, ambient, trance music and pop avant-garde. Although the band does not have a frontman in the true sense, comparisons with groups like Radiohead or The National are appropriate. To describe the style of Tonbruket with common genre terms is almost hopeless. Tonbruket is always the sum of what each member has picked up on their travels, and yet always what they had not been before.

So her sixth album »Masters of Fog« is both confirmation and challenge. Their tenth anniversary, they do not take for a reason to look back, but they explore more new terrain than ever. If they tried to maintain a stylistic narrative on all previous albums, "Masters of Fog" looks like a collection of separate short stories that nonetheless make a logical connection. The sound palette has become even more diverse, and the fusion of the four voices has become so complex that you can hardly assign the mass of individual sounds to the respective sound source. In terms of cohesion, the band has again reached a new level of energy and communication. The compelling groove, the search for the new in the old and the panoramic sound are still the band's signatures, making them recognizable as a tone bridge from the first note, but the mix of sounds, melodies and references is brand new. Berglund, Lindström, Hederos and Werliin not only know exactly what they can do, but also what they want. "Masters of Fog" sounds like the bright and self-confident departure to a world of new sound adventures that even the four travelers themselves do not know where to go.

TRACKLIST

01. Masters of Fog
02. Am/Fm
03. The Enders
04. Entering the Amazonas
05. Tonability
06. Waiting for Damocles Sword
07. Wheel No. 5
08. The Barn
09. Chain Rule Formula
10. A Tale of Fall
11. The Pavlova Murders



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