With influences like Bjork, Damien Rice, and Sufjan Stevens, one can assume a musician’s melodies will go one of two ways: either one of great depth or one of great pretention. Undoubtedly, Swedish musician Henrik Skanfors is a member of the former group, creating an acoustic sound that is vulnerable, intricate, and all around arresting.
For the past two years Skanfors has been hard at work finishing his latest album, Carcass and the Flies, following up 2007’s The Last Gash. The 2009 release was done entirely in house- literally; these songs were put together in his apartment. From the music, to the production, to the cover art and distribution, Skanfors has manned every inch of this record. “I have no interest in paper work, but just enough craving for control over the entire process not to let it go. So it’s a slow process for me. Really slow. But it’s my work, all mine. That means a lot for me, and I guess even more in the future when looking back.” (Henrik Skanfors)
Incidentally, this Carcass and the Flies is a creation he should be proud to call his own, whether he had made it from scratch or not. Ten tracks that are not only about solitude, but emit and so perfectly emote it, Carcass and the Flies is one of those sadly beautiful creations in the same vein as Jeff Buckley and Elliott Smith. Vocally we have a hard time pegging Skanfors voice-to us it falls somewhere under the umbrella of Chris Martin and Rufus Wainwright, but somehow there’s just more to it. There is a ragged but entirely polished quality to his voice that makes it feel raw, but the sound coming from his well trained vocal chords is entirely too lovely to be categorized as only that.
Never raucous in his expression of angst, most of these tracks take on a subdued, ethereal quality, equipped with solemn piano and hushed acoustic guitar. Some tracks, like ‘Walls’, implement simplicity, featuring one note of guitar coupled with vocals, while others such as ‘Unguardead Words’ and ‘Poetry to Me’ exhibit more aggression, though still maintaining the same familiarly peaceful tempo behind it’s confrontation.
‘Lonely are the Brave’ shows a glimmer of happiness in the form of tinkling piano, an opening of sleepy guitar and casual “mm mm oh oh’s”, while ‘296’ is entirely quivering in sadness. One of the things we love about Skanfors as a singer is the fact that he can show emotional breaking vocally without coming across whiny- he truly has control over voice and how he emotes through it. Each of these songs is composed thoughtfully, and while the musician has called the process behind this record a long one, upon listening to it we honestly would have expected much more than two years to go into creating such deliberately delicate piece of work. From its opening track ‘Winter Skin’, one that carefully builds guitar upon it’s rhythmic single drum track, crooning “They call me bubble boy, science keeps me whole. It’s time to let me go”- to its melodic and whispering ending with ‘Sincere Regrets’, this album is clearly one made with purpose.
Above all, the beautiful thing about this record is the intricacy Skanfors has managed to hide under the guise of simplicity. Artists who truly know how to make use of negative space are far and few between, but in nearly all of his tracks Henrik has managed to use the silence and murmurs between notes to express his songs just as fully as what’s written on the staff. A truly well composed compilation of songs, Carcass and the Flies is an album we can’t stop playing, particularly as we live through the unforgiving nature of winter. The album is available for streaming on Henrik’s website, henrikskanfors.com, and up for sale on a variety of online sources, a list of which you can view here.
Henrik Skanfors Carcass and the Flies is available on:
Amazon
iTunes
CDON
Henrik Skanfors Online:
Myspace
Henrik Skanfors.com
Reviewsic got the chance to talk with the man behind the music himself - about his new record, music he loves, and the best show he’s ever played.
Telegram Sam: What are your favorite venues to play?
Henrik Skanfors: Of course I wouldn’t mind to do the great venues with a crowd of 40.000, but for me a lot has to do with the team around the stage; the sound guy, the host that greets you on arrival etc. The people you actually MEET. Sometimes you hang with a crew the whole day during sound check, gig and the mandatory beer afterwards, and I’ve met so many wonderful people on the road. On bigger concerts as well as small cafes. If I have to say something I guess it would be anytime, anywhere as the opening-act for Radiohead.
T.S: Tell us the story behind your full length, Carcass and the Flies
Henrik Skanfors: Carcass and the Flies is a ten track singer/songwriter album about solitude. That is a keyword: solitude. And alienation. People in lack of love or the ability to receive it. And I guess the last thing is much worse. Having people around you that would give their lives for your sake with out a blink of an eye, while you would never come to think of doing the same for them given all the time in the world. All the tracks are recorded and mixed by myself in my apartment. Once again, it would probably be a faster process to work in a studio with a sound engineer, but I love to create the sound myself. For me it’s sort of the 3rd stage of writing a song, not just the lyrics and music.
T.S: Who are your top five musical influences?
Henrik Skanfors:
So many, can’t be ranked… I like:
Radiohead
Jeff Buckley
Stina Nordenstam
Kathleen Edwards
Sufjan Stevens
T.S: How did your music come to be what it is today?
Henrik Skanfors: A lot of things can happen if you just allow yourself to be alone for awhile, “unentertained”. I think many people have a strong fear of the feelings and thoughts we keep down with a constant movement and distractions. It’s painful to stop and listen to the real voices, your own and other’s. I started writing to handle it.
T.S: What’s in store for your music in the next year?
Henrik Skanfors: We’ll see. I just hope it will affect someone in some positive way.
T.S: Most memorable show you have played to date?
Henrik Skanfors: Last winter Rachael Yamagata asked me to be her opening-act when she visited Sweden on her tour in Europe. Big honor for me as I love her work.
T.S: What other projects have you been a part of?
Henrik Skanfors: I was the lead singer in a band called Kamprads. We released one album and toured in California in 2006.
T.S: If you were to sum up your music in 3 words, what would they be?
Henrik Skanfors: Solitude, alienation, agony
