Legacy

Any ambient electronica aficionado who wasn’t asleep during the last thirteen years, certainly heard of Stefan Strand’s Between Interval project at some point. The Swedish musician, producer and composer has released tracks on compilations by the prestigious Ultimae imprint, and including his latest effort, Legacy, five successful albums on the excellent long-lasting Spotted Peccary imprint.

Legacy comes after eight years of silence and marks a highlight point in Between Interval’s career. Years of experience and a lot of hard work have culminated with what feels like his best work to date. He is known for his spacey sound but Legacy takes things to a deeper level in terms of musicality and sound design. The movement of the compositions feels so effortless and natural. Legacy does not reinvent the genre, but certainly refreshes it in a spellbinding manner. Space music is at the peak of its comeback these days; so many artists try to capture and revive that timeless magic from the seventies but end up with recycled boring outcomes. Legacy is the real thing within genre districts full of recycling. It manages to capture and revive that timeless magic from the seventies in an original enticing way. Elements of Berlin school, drone and electronica float elegantly together and occasionally flirt seductively with dub techno flavors.

This is space music in its finest form. Lush, liquid, and entirely ethereal. Ten tracks of intoxicating propulsive circular beauty. Let’s hope we won’t have to wait eight more years for the next Between Interval gem.

- Gad, Igloo Magazine

Sweden's Between Interval, the project name of electronic music composer Stefan Strand has been working in electronic music since 1996 and has five albums going back to 2004, four of the on the Spotted Peccary label. His last release was all the way back in 2009 ('The Edge of a Fairy Tale'), so Between Interval fans have had a long wait for 'Legacy.' I haven'[t heard any of Between Interval's prior efforts, but the promo sheet says that he's influenced by Jean Michel Jarre, Robert Rich, Aphex Twin and Pink Floyd, so there is a certain expectation, for me at least. While the album's concept is not nearly as exacting as S. K. Johansen's 'Secret Space Program,' it certainly is a spacier affair. This artist seems to prefer a more impressionistic approach, which is fine in music like this. Once you get too definite, there are certain expectations that are disappointing when not met, and tend to dichotomize the artist's concept from the listener's experience. None of that here. This is space music, pure and simple. Damn fine space music too. Between Interval never gets too specific with melody, and lets the sublimity of the atmosphere carry you away. Right from the opening track ("Tunnel") the music seems other-worldly. There is motion well-integrated with the cosmic ambience, with a purposeful sequenced percussion track that gently propels the listener onward. The journey continues in the nearly hypnotic "On Track" with just enough simple thematic content that doesn't overwhelm. (This makes for wonderful driving music, by the way.) Maybe your energy is waning. Maybe you need an "Accelerant" to give you a boost. It takes a little time to come on, but when it does, it recalls the impetus of Tangerine Dream and Michael Hoenig sequencers. Plenty of nature field recordings herald in "The Hour Appointed," but also with bellish tones and an ominous dark and low ambient pad that adds contrast to what otherwise might have been a sunny day. The technoir of "Septimal Laws" makes for pure space ambient delight, and the cosmic awesomeness of "Fields of Neptune" holds its own with the best of 70's electronic space music. Old school at its finest. By the time you get to "The Outer Shell," you're in floating deep space and time seems to have little meaning anymore. However, every flight must eventually return to terra and the trancey return with "Gravity Core" makes for a smooth landing. "Inner Guidance" is perhaps the most enigmatic track on 'Legacy,' with electronically manipulated voices, methodically placed bass accents, and a Blade Runneresque ambience. While "Closing In" isn't much more than a minute of noise sweeps, it's an effective way to end the trip. What I really like about Between Interval's compositions is that they never go overboard with sounds (nearly minimalistic at times) and allow the music a lot of breathing space, yet still sound huge. In electro-ambient space music, that's a big plus. Also available in limited edition vinyl.

- Steve Mecca, Chain D.L.K.

Back in the days when masterworks such as "Radio Silence", "Secret Observatory" or "Autumn Continent" were released, I was always considering Stefan Strand (actually these gems were recorded under his previous family name Jönsson) as a Swedish wunderkind. Yeah, we are moving back to the years 2004-2006. Followed by another impressive work "The Edge Of A Fairytale" in 2009, Stefan Strand has then disappeared for 8 years. However, the long wait is finally over and since April 2017 we all can celebrate colossal comeback of this hugely crafted soundscaper. Released by Spotted Peccary Music in their traditional 4-panel eco wallet featuring stunning cover art by renowned Polish digital artist and photographer Michal Karcz. With this connection you simply can't go wrong! Additional credit goes to Howard Givens for his fine mastering.

The gates to "The Tunnel" are unlocked and I am entering into awe-inspiring sonic realms, where warmer laid-back passages impeccably juxtapose with cyber-tech infused magnitudes. Briskly illuminating pulses join the spectacle as well along with gorgeously expansive introspections. Short, but absolutely jaw-dropping intro!!! 4-minute "On Track", slightly longer than its predecessor, attracts with hypnotically cadenced patterns carefully confronted with glimpsing ear-tickling euphoric cascades and relaxed hyper modern ingredients.

It's more than evident with "Legacy" Stefan Strand resurrects chillout downtempos from "Radio Silence", but this time he shifts his bravura into a much higher, state of the art plateau of coldly driven electronica, yet exquisitely counterpointed with balmily embracing horizons. It's quite apparent on "Accelerant", which masterfully bridges immensely nuanced drifts with mesmerizingly galvanizing, slightly Berlin School fragranced sequences and unforeseen poetic glimpses. "The Hour Appointed" reveals its deeper drones, organic subtleties, unfathomably echoed metallic tinkles and surreptitiously emerging intangible tribal serenities. Oracular subterranean genius loci is fully awake! The next piece, "Septimal Laws", is immediately ignited by spectacularly high-tech sounding bleeps, pellucidly polished to absolute eargasmic superiority, which are guarded by leisurely undulating curtains. No matter if feeding your headphones or speakers, a reference audiophile sound quality is fully blossoming here!!! "Fields Of Neptune" delves deeper into thrillingly enigmatic terrains, sonorously engulfing, but again glowingly amplified by magnetically pulsing tapestries and backed by gossamery percussive quietudes. Another absolutely phenomenal track! "The Outer Shell", clocking to 8:17 mark as the longest track, keeps tightly on the path of intriguing spatial terra incognitas, when fastidiously amalgamating serenely waving reverberant drones with mysteriously impalpable pulsing signals and clandestinely arising astral gleams. "Gravity Core" is fueled with continuously permeating razor-sharp and heavy pounding beats, spellbindingly trancescaping, and surrounded by emanating and evanescing ethereal blankets, reinforced occasionally by ephemeral meridians. Hallucinogenic voices announce "Inner Guidance", but the sonic spectacle is quickly stolen by persistently climaxing and strongly intoxicating sequencer vignettes, while auxiliary cybernetic fragments are riding atop along with ambrosially euphonious panoptic layers. Another superb composition and one of the undisputable pinnacles of "Legacy". "Closing In" is a very short conclusion navigated by desolate dronescapes, which along the way metamorphose into glancing evocative reflections.

Wow! "Legacy" is only 51-plus minutes long, I could easily enjoy additional 20-25 minutes, but trust me, this is the only low point found on this album. It's totally triumphant work by Stefan Strand, who certainly didn't loose any of his soundsculpting brilliancy. If someone is able to deliver such staggeringly remarkable recording after 8 years of silence, then he must get my excuse. Stefan, no problem!!! But no, seriously, please, don't let us wait again that long... As already mentioned, once you were a wunderkind for me, now you are a true genius of pristinely blazing ambient cybertronica! And by the way, "Legacy" is available also as a vinyl edition (limited to 500 copies), it's Spotted Peccary's first ever vinyl release. So select your preferred format now, because "Legacy" is another milestone by Between Interval and one of the undeniable aural vertexes of 2017! - Richard Gurtler, Ambient Visions

Ill-advisedly played at low volume as one's engaged in some other, non-musical activity, Stefan Strand's fifth Between Interval album might not sound all that different from other ambient-electronic collections. But with competing distractions removed and one's attention wholly focused, one's appreciation for Legacy's sophisticated sound design grows appreciably. One reason why one might underappreciate Between Interval's music is because of its understatement; Strand always exercises tasteful restraint in his refined productions, and as the fifty-one-minute Legacy progresses, the Swedish composer's kinship with tastemakers such as Loscil, Biosphere, and Arovane becomes apparent; as with their recordings, every element in Between Interval's music has purpose. (Strand himself has said of his music, “I wouldn't call it minimalistic, but instead of giving away too much in terms of melodies I aim to incorporate subtle and implicit changes.”)

Michal Karcz's striking cover painting and Strand's suggestive track titles are consistent with his statement that the album represents a journey and that its theme primarily has to do with exploration, whether that be a physical one through the cosmos (as intimated by “Fields of Neptune”) or a spiritual one involving the psyche (“Inner Guidance”). Note that Spotted Peccary has made a limited edition colour vinyl version of the release available, though the LP omits two tracks included in the CD and download formats (“The Hour Appointed” and “Closing In”); further to that, two vinyl tracks are a tad shorter than their digital and CD counterparts.

The nuance of Strand's sound design is evident the moment “The Tunnel” initiates the recording with ominous bass pulses, silken atmospheres, and metallic textures, after which the elegant melodicism and gentle rhythmic thrust of “On Track” illustrate how inaccurate it would be to brand his material wallpaper music, no matter how legitimate such a move might be in the case of some ambient producers. One also shouldn't be surprised when echoes of influential forebears such as Pete Namlook, Robert Rich, Tangerine Dream, Steve Roach, and The Future Sound of London occasionally surface; one could be forgiven, for example, for hearing a bit of Tangerine Dream in the whooshes and synth sequences that surface during “Fields of Neptune.” Impeccably crafted, Legacy deftly segues between related ambient sub-genres, among them electronica, spacemusic, soundscaping, and even dub-techno.
Indicative of Strand's restrained approach, acoustic piano playing emerges as an element within the pulsating synthetic landscape of “Accelerant” but used so minimally and woven so subtly into the overall design that a less attentive listener could miss it altogether. The stark “Gravity Core” captivates also, despite featuring little more than a dubby synth pulse and string accents. In addition, field recordings amplify the atmospheric character of “The Hour Appointed” by deepening its mystery with waves gently lapping ashore and bells tolling, but for the most part Strand conjures his powerfully evocative realms—inner and outer—using primarily electronic means.

- Ron Schepper, Textura

It's with patience that we discover beautiful jewels. Some very beautiful music! As this last album of Between Interval which took a long time to come after the attractive and enigmatic The Edge of a Fairytale released in 2009. And to fill this wait, let's say that Stefan Strand returns in a very great shape after a silence of very close to 8 years from the radar music. And his comeback sounds very pleasant, even if I needed at least 5 good listening before falling under its charms.

Rather furtive bass pulsations are piercing an opaque wall of cerulean droning. Percussive effects get in at the same time that a line of sequences loosens an oscillating stroboscopic approach. These combined elements forge one dense rhythmic skeleton among which the knocks and the ill-assorted jingles smother the rather organic tone of the sequences. This motionless rhythm of "The Tunnel" progresses without ever overflowing in an impermeable atmosphere sewn by a shower of synth lines which shapes a sound panorama as charming as intriguing. Dusts and mists of "The Tunnel" are absorbed by the splendid "On Track" and its charmingly lascivious structure of rhythm which skips between a delicate drumming of sequences and percussive jingles. A very evasive melody lies down there, spreading its melancholy in a sound texture where the style Dub and Ambient House looks for a hidden recess in order to explode. The approach remains however taciturn and quietly the listener goes adrift towards "Accelerant" and its oscillating swell which spins in a tubular corridor. Scattered keyboard chords trace a melody dreamy and nostalgic, like in "On Track", but more in an ambient ethereal mode. They and weave a delicious contrast between its structure of rhythm. These melodic pearls fall like sonic tears throughout the soundscapes of “Legacy”, as in the very ambient and meditative "The Hour Appointed" of which the multiple percussive effects and the reverberations draw a gloomy vibe. "Septimal Laws", just like the superb "Gravity Core", brings us to the level of the snoring ambient and minimalist rhythms of Plastikman in the time of his Consumed. Two simply delicious titles of Techno ambient!
"Fields of Neptune" gets between our ears with good electronic effects and an immense sonic waves which metamorphose into a heavy awning compacted of sibylline songs of steel. A very Berlin School sequence signs an unstable rhythmic which circulates like a vertical auger in an encircling veil of a very striking sonic blue. Now, each title is linked in “Legacy”, giving a mix of styles rather difficult to buy from the first listening. Like this very ambient and restful "The Outer Shell" which nests between two opposites in a delicious cosmic mood. Stefan Strand slides these effects of percussions and piles the synth layers which have so many colors as elements of distant voices, giving so many reliefs to the landscapes of “Legacy”. "Gravity Core" is simply great in its suit of Richie Hawtin. Its snoring sequences resound up to the frontiers of "Inner Guidance", another rather Berlin School title in the vein of "Fields of Neptune" but with a more glaucous decoration in particular because of the resonances effects and the bass pulsations. Slowly this limping rhythm melts in a decoration of ambiences and murmurs to join the furrows of the winds of a space shuttle which derives in a cosmos where lie sonic hoops and their radiances which crumble off in the black.

I have to admit that I needed a very attentive listening before appreciating this last opus of Between Interval. Nevertheless, everything is beautiful and rather lyrical! I imagine that the avalanche of styles, which melt themselves in panoramas sometimes cosmic and sometimes earthly, can leave the fans of a kind or the other one on their appetites. As I, with the effects Plastikman. But in the course of listening, we discover a surprising album which I appreciate even more in every new listening. I hope now not to have to wait another 8 years for a suite to “Legacy”…

- Sylvain Lupari, Synth & Sequences