Genre: Avant-garde / Neofolk / Ambient

Additional Notes: Edition of 300 copies with full color insert and 7 postcards. The first 103 copies comes with an additional vintage (1900-1950) postcard.

Dusa is a little known neofolk band out of Sweden. I really don't know what to say about this release other than it is incredibly odd. It's full of samples thrown together that make you feel like you're flipping through a photo album spannig the life of a countryside. The imagery that the album provokes is nostalgic to say the least. It reminds me of farm life before electricity and americanized culture. When children used to run outside with their shoes off to play in the wheat fields. Before the world became so run over with humans that we fight to work and have room to breathe. It's almost as if scientists plugged a recorder into an old farmer's brain and recorded the sounds of his memories. The album is almost completely random with its music and sounds. One minute we may be hearing someone speaking underneath a slight guitar melody, the next we'll have an odd ambient beat coming through the music, and the next minute we will have disharmonic melodies from several instruments.

The production is very old school. Very grainy and poppy, even for vinyl. The artwork reminds me of 60's/70's records from bands like Simon & Garfunkel. It's actually very beautifully packaged, and even comes with postcards (one of which is a real vintage postcard.) I guess the best way to describe this album is video taping about 3 generations worth of footage, and then hitting the fastforward button randomly. We find ourselves skipping through memories as fast as they come back to us. From days at the carnival, to time back home, to piano lessons, to those moments when we were younger and though that indian rituals were fun to try to recreate, or dancing around a bonfire. Certain moments remind me of Gabber. The artist is obviously using the samples, as weird as they are, to create some catchy beats. And he/she succeeds at certain points.

This release isn't bad, but it's not good either. It's hard to really truely tell someone whether this album is worth seeking out or not. The music isn't fantastic. But the sheer experimental nature of the album has been worth it for me. It's obviously not for everyone. But avant-garde doesn't even really start to describe the nature of this recording. It's really pretty creepy at times. If you're a diehard experimental fan, pick it up. If you like going "what the fuck?" a whole lot, pick it up. Dusa really gave me a foreboding but interesting experience. It's odd to me how they managed to mix the creepy side of things with nostalgia so effectively. Though the "music" parts of this album may not be the best, its what the artist tried to accomplish with this release that matters.