Year: 2024
Label: Zoharum

Swedish Jarl is another of those hyper-productive artists, whose discography is extensive to say the least. In about 25 years, the project has released, according to Discogs, 37 albums and a few other things, resulting in a pleasantly even number of releases: 40.

That’s a lot.

Luckily for yours truly, I don’t have to dig into each and every one of them, just the most recent one.

Of course, the snide remark could be made that Jarl’s style of music, at least how it appears on Receptor Radiation, is suited for assembly line production of albums. Abstract ambient with rather minimalistic and understated arrangements is, at least on a superficial level, the kind of music it is easy to crank out in virtually endless supply.

Only on a superficial level, of course. It takes vision and skill to make something worthwhile out of minimalism. Anyone can belt out one note tunes and call it an exercise in minimalism; it takes a lot more for anyone else to give it the time of day.

Luckily, Jarl has some of that “a lot more.”

What themes does Receptor Radiation revolve around? This is how the label describes it: “A soundtrack for the brain and human nervous system with signals sent to the brain in the form of electrical signals so biological trancdusers convert energy from both external and internal environments into electrical impulses. In other words -receiving signals and intiate a response.” And I find myself none the wiser – so let’s just dig into the music. (“About time”, I hear our readers groan.)

So, minimalism and ambient are keywords here. Analogue synthesizers wash over the listener in waves of drawn out, slowly moving and shifting layers of sound. The tracks consist not so much of changing chords and notes as slowly modulating and mutating, extended sounds. In timbre, these are almost exclusively bright, harmonious and serene, with a shimmering quality to them.

At first listen, Receptor Radiation sounds deceivingly simplistic, to the point of feeling a bit underwhelming. However, with repeated, attentive listening, one is able to penetrate deeper into the undulating, roiling music, discovering just under the surface a surprising amount of nuance and detail. The somewhat opaque surface layer reveals, upon penetration, depths at first unseen.

This leads me to circle back to the theme of the album. I’m no scientist, but as I’ve understood, the effects of radiation build up over time as you are exposed to it. What at first is almost undetectable may grow to have serious effects. In that sense, there is an analogue to Jarl’s music; the first, trepidative exposure has little effect, but as the exposure grows, Receptor Radiation’s impact and effect also grows.

Maybe that’s a bit convoluted and out there as far as interpretations go. I dunno.

At any rate, Receptor Radiation has grown from a thoroughly meh! experience to one I quite enjoy listening to. There is a hidden complexity and somewhat subsumed beauty in here. It does take a dedicated fan of understated abstraction to single it out, so Radiator Reception is not for everyone – but for its target audience, it can be a very rewarding listen.

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