Genre:  Ghost Ambient / Electronic / Visual

Side A:
01 City Rain
02 Spring Song
03 Falling Trees
04 Midnight Ride
05 Hiding

Side B:
06 Dusk
07 Dark Roads
08 Bird Girl
09 The Dead Period
10 Sleeping

Few artists in this world are capable of speaking through multiple artistic mediums while simultaniously keeping them flowing through one another.  There are a great many audio-visual artists in this world, and though many try and success at perhaps making a video that reacts with their music, no one really accomplishes bringing their imagery to life through music.  Tor Lundvall is more than a simple amateur artist.  He has been painting at a professional standard since 1991 when he graduated from art school, and its this side of his art that have truly brought his releases to life through intense   Tor Lundvall has always had a strong tie in the world of surrealism, but his other hand was always tied in this world as well.  Nearly every painting he does is nature-oriented in some way, but reaches into his imagination for key elements.  His usage in oils has come to a master level at this point any   This has been the backbone and basis for the beautiful, and sometimes frighteningly dark (see:  The Mist), textures in music.  Though Tor Lundvall's presence in the world was made evident initially through Passing through Alone in 1997, most of the world seems to have been introduced via his collaboration with Tony Wakeford in the following year on Tursa, entitled “Autumn Calls”.  Since that time, initially, Tor Lundvall continued to release on Eternal Autumn Editions, his own label, until 2004 brought him to the North American distribution source Strange Fortune.  This lasted from 2004 – 2007 until Italy's great neoclassical and industrial outlet Ars Benevola Mater assisted with his second 7” release, Mizuko Jizo.  This year has seen the rebirth of Eternal Autumn Editions with a compilation disc of his early demo work between 1991 and 1994, and finally, his, much deserved, first 12 inch LP entitled “Sleeping and Hiding”, on American label Dais Records.

You may have heard his music described as “Ghost Ambient” in the past, but I prefer to call this night-time ambient.  Sleepy and dreamy, longing tracks that slowly pull you into the picture itself, though usually distorted into your imagination as your own version of the story shown.  Sleeping and Hiding expresses a desolate atmosphere through warmth.  There is so much pull in this record, unlike many of his earlier works which seemed confined in its own world, pushing away the listener.  There was always a surge of grief in those tracks for me.  These though, embrace the listener with a warm greeting and understanding of the desolate yet calm and relaxed moments of life.  Some tracks have a very slight jazz and lounge appeal, while others have a notable minimal neofolk and perhaps tribal or ritual percussive backdrop.  Spring Song especially beats slowly in a tribal and bombastic gentle percussive chant.  We hear softly played vibes that flow suspended to give the effect of a Spring sprinkling shower over top of the music.  Falling Trees brings us to a slightly more dark passage with music that is just slow and minimal yet melodic enough of the keys to resemble some of the more vocal tracks that you may be used to from the Silent Hill game series (perhaps songs like Room of Angel?)  This takes on another Earthy layer though bringing us back to this world out of the surreal gestures that the music implies.  Sleeping in Hiding contains tracks to the soundtrack of the most hidden and taken for granted moments in life and the beauty they contain in slow motion.  Midnight Ride brings further down into that dark world within Tor Lundvall with more dark keyboard melodies and thick background bass hum.  Lyrics are about the obvious, a midnight ride through the rain, but are said in such away that brings about a dreary and bleak scene, more desolation, more odd moments of melancholy in warmth. 

My personal favorite is the last track of Side A, where the emptiness is finally completely apparent and the warmth erodes away into dust only to be brought back subtletly later.  The track opens with two lines that most of us can identify with on a strong emotional level:  “As I rise to face the day, I only wish to hide away...  Under dark clouds through the trees, fading sunlight burns the leaves.  ”   Many a evening I have awoken from falling asleep in a helpless glance to the outside world, only to turn back inward.  For years the only beauty that I could see in life were through those moments.  When Side B begins with Dusk, it becomes apparent that there may some very minimal trip hop influences from the more melancholic moments of bands like Portishead.  All five tracks on this side generally get warmer until the end when Sleeping approaches, and embraces the listener like a blanket into eternity, flowing us out into a distant sleep, purling chords and bass heavy tones drifting ominously towards infinity.  For lovers of moody, dark and night-oriented music, it really doesn't get much more perfect than Sleeping and Hiding.  To be honest, if there was one artist missing from what I consider to be one of the best compilations of all time, Suspicious Records' “Broken Nightlights:  A Collection of Nighttime Music and Inky Dark Beats”, it would have to be Tor Lundvall.

Sleeping and Hiding comes in a beautifully designed 12” cardboard vinyl sleeve.  The front cover features a tree and moon sigil on top of the Band and Album title, which are written in blue foil print.  The border is of a navy blue / purple mixture and surrounds another painting from Tor Lundvall of a colorful but desperately melancholic figure laying in a hilly Spring theme.    The back side has the same color scheme and foil print with another surreal oil painting of figures flying kites in an afternoon sky in a fenced pasture.  The black vinyl comes with an insert that on one side features another painting.  This one is of an Autumn scene with slightly darker imagery of a kite stuck to a willowing and leafless tree, of which what appears to be bones lie under.  No burial, one kite, no other humans in Autumn.  A desolate death, one who died alone and withered with the tree above him as his kite gazed back at him from the sky.  The reverse side features lyrics (thankfully, as so few artists offer this poetry blatantly in written form these days) and five additional drawings from Tor Lundvall.

What more can be said?  This is a cornerstone of Tor Lundvall's discography and to date stands strong with all of his other releases.  If you're like me and adore vinyl though, you'll want to get your hands on this release quickly as its limited to a mere 500 copies and is is priced at $16.00.  Sleeping and Hiding is well worth that, so get your copy before its gone!  The Coum Transmissions LP that was JUST released sold out almost immediately, so more and more eyes are looking towards Dais Records, so trust that it probably won't be in print long.