Danish project TÖMRERCLAUS is the still ongoing creative vehicle of composer and musician Claus Clement Pedersen, an ongoing venture for him for some 40 years at this point, with a handful of albums released under this moniker. The self-titled production “Tömrerclaus” dates back to 1978, and was reissued on vinyl by Swedish label Transubstans Records in the fall of 2014.
What we’re presented with here is music made by someone that, at least when this album was made, appears to have been rather deeply fascinated with the music of the hippie movement, both the more innocent music made at it’s onset as well as the darker material that appeared after the movement lost it’s relative innocence. It also appears that he is rather fond of the blues.
One might say that this album is more or less evenly divided between more hippie laced material and more blues oriented escapades, but what both aspects of the material have in common is the use of psychedelic oriented instrument details, and then mainly by way of psychedelic dripping guitar solo runs. For the blues oriented material Tömrerclaus mainly hones in on a more twisted guitar sound for those escapades, while the folkier, more innocent material are treated to guitar solo escapades of a more ethereal general nature.
Most of the compositions appears as fairly repetitive in nature, and I get the impression that the hypnotic effects of such a repetition is a planned aspect of these compositions. Especially on a song like Kanibalerne Kommer, where each repetition of the central motif is played louder than the last, and developing from a fairly gentle and innocent affair into a loud and rather dramatic one as this piece reaches it’s crescendo. The English title of the song would be The Cannibals Are Coming, and the manner in which this song develops fits that title quite nicely I should add.
Still, the big draw on this album is second track Når Spindelvævene Blomstrer, a dream-laden affair with a distinctly innocent mood and atmosphere to it, and with a presumably female guest vocalist that has a most distinct tone and style of delivery that fits this particular mood and atmosphere brilliantly. I should probably also mention Cellokarma, and while this rather dark and brooding affair is more intriguing than actually interesting for me, it’s still not all that often I have encountered the cello played as in this piece, a sound I think may be best described as twisted fuzz cello.
Tömrerclaus second, self-titled album isn’t a lavish affair, but rather one I’d describe as somewhat basic at times. It does come with some basic charms though, explored to good effect, and as long as mood and atmosphere is more important to you than a lavish mix and production you may want to take note of this production. Especially if you live in Scandinavia, and either can fondly recall the hippie era or would have liked to experience it.
My rating: 70/100
