AGUSA – Noir (2024, LP/CD Kommun 2) 

RELEASE INFO:

Label:  Kommun 2

Format: LP, Album, Limited Edition, Black Vinyl 

Format: CD, Album, Gatefold digipack with clear tray

Release Date: 10 May 2024

Someone, back in the day used to say “…a band that respects itself and wants to go to the next level, ought to write the film score for a movie…”. You may agree or disagree with this, it’s not of importance, but what matters here is that our beloved Swedish Psych-Prog Rock band Agusa indeed wrote the film score (soundtrack) for the film “Malmö Noir” (directed by Augustin Sjöberg). Here’s the story of what and how through Agusa’s Bandcamp:

“The story of “Noir”.

Our guitar player Mikael works as a mailman and one day he happened to be talking to a fellow worker who, as it turned out, was making his own movie and he needed some original music for the score. This was during the pandemic and nothing much was happening for the band. We flowed with the idea. Tim couldn’t make it that particular night when we recorded the foundations, but the session resulted in a lot of ideas. It became a very different project for us, both the process of making it, building it slow, exploring new soundscapes. Based on some of these ideas we created “Uppenbarelser” on our album “En annan värld” (2021), with Tim on drums, but the movie score session still didn’t have any drums. Later when Tim left the band, the project went into hibernation for a while, but somehow we couldn’t really leave the melodies and atmosphere we once recorded. It was not until 2023 that Nicolás added drums to the project, which gave it a lot more energy and finally made it a whole. One special night, working on the soundtrack, we went out and ended up at the portal that we came to use as an album cover. During the making of this album it was hard years for the world, with lockdowns and wars, but Agusa as a band also went through dark times. Storms, but also contrasts of breathtaking dawns and hope. We hope that you hear it in this music – our darkness and our light.

Much love, Agusa…”

The LP version of “Noir” contains 15 tracks while the CD one includes 5 more bonus tracks that could not be fitted in on the vinyl LP. The instrumental music all over the album deals mainly with Progressive Rock, of course of the past years, the 70s to be precise. There’s a strong feel of “improvisation”. Also, Agusa did find a way to experiment, a bit. The amazing thing here is that if we weren’t aware that this is a soundtrack, we hardly could believe it! Okay, maybe we could have a small idea by the short vocal excerpts from the movie or from the extremely cinematic feel that a few tracks have… Psychedelic Rock also plays a significant role through many tracks of the album. And then, there are these not-so-well-hidden Krauty passages that add a creepy-like but fascinating edge to some of the tracks. The music sometimes is fast, wild, and heavy, and some other times is slow, weird, and trippy. Other times when the Flute leads the way then Prog and Psychedelia are so magically blended that, the listener’s only choice is to surrender to that amazing beautifully-made colorful Prog-Psych soundscapes… “Noir” is one of those albums that you’ll have to listen to as an “entity”, it’s hard to “isolate” a track or two, or more. Lastly, the music that Agusa made/provided for the film surely arouses your interest in trying to watch the movie! In conclusion, “Noir” is another “Quality” album by Agusa! Invest! TimeLord Michalis  

Tracklist

Links:    

Listen/Buy through AGUSA Bandcamp

Alternatively, get it via SHINY BEAST Mailorder

Visit AGUSA Facebook