ERIK KLINGA - Elusive Shimmer
Album notes by Luka Aron
Erik Klinga presents Elusive Shimmer, the first installment in a trilogy of albums released by the Thanatosis label. On his debut, the Swedish electroacoustic composer offers a euphoric, celestial body of work, with the Buchla 200 synthesizer as the primary source of sound. Combined with delicate field recordings and pipe organ performances, the eight tracks here burst with melodic poignance and glow with incandescent brilliance.
The opening track awakens like the first rays of dawn, with wind chime-like swells gently stirring the senses. Gradually, a grounding bottom end emerges, shifting attention to an altered, yet not dystopian, landscape. Further revealed in 'Iridescence,' this gliding sense of centerlessness soon gives way to a joyous elevation as melody rises from reverb-laden clouds, only to be submerged again in a swirl of choralesque organ tones, buried just beneath the surface.
With track titles alluding to visual phenomena—specifically light—Klinga's compositions evoke the sensation of being washed over by frequencies. Whether gamma rays, electromagnetic fields, or ultrasonic waveforms, the specifics blur and distinctions fade. What remains is an all-encompassing warmth, like morning sunlight on skin. It feels as though light itself has been folded into sound, refracting through layers of analog synthesis to reveal a series of luminous, unfolding vignettes.
While many of Klinga's works delve even further into avian-inspired sound, his fascination with birdsong permeates this album as well. The high-pitched fluttering synth textures evoke the complexity and spontaneity of nature’s own sonic arrangements. Each sound event—no matter how synthetically produced—comes across with organic inevitability, as though each note is as elusive and untouchable as a bird’s call.
A more introspective side surfaces in 'Luminous Rays,' exploring themes of instability and the push and pull between calm and dissonant states. The sound mirrors the fluctuations of the mind, reaching equilibrium through opposing forces. Ethereal yet anchored in the real world, it serves as an invitation to see through the illusion of solidity.
Where earlier pieces are like an intricate shadow play, constantly shifting between what lies in the foreground and what recedes into the background, 'Rarefaction' arrives as a final, dazzling vision that lingers in a state of awe, bathing the listener in the full spectrum of light. Slow-moving spectral developments reveal brief moments of clarity amidst a broader landscape of dissonance and disruption, as if releasing the rarefied air of some otherworldly dimension.
Emerging from the hallowed halls of Stockholm’s Royal College of Music and later refined at the RMC in Copenhagen, Klinga's roots as an in-demand drummer for acts like Solen subtly pulse through his solo work. Though Elusive Shimmer is devoid of percussion, a certain rhythmic drive remains undeniable, particularly in 'Iridescence,' where a forward-leaning momentum propels the piece even in its most hazy, weightless moments. Then, on the final track, 'Dawn Chorus,' Klinga can no longer contain his excitement, introducing a heart-pounding kick drum that pierces through the synthesizer textures.
With Elusive Shimmer, Erik Klinga stunningly reaches a point where sound, imagined light, and emotion align and converge. The thrust of his compositional intent—tranquil yet charged with rapture—guides listeners through a state of constant flux, soft yet infused with an electric undercurrent. Open like the sky, this debut shines with a rare luminescence, sparking excitement for what is yet to come from this ever-radiant composer.
Biography
Erik Klinga, b.1991 in Sandviken, Sweden, is a composer and musician. Klinga is known from the bands Simian Ghost, Light Vibes and Horse Show and has played in multiple projects as a drummer including acts such as Solen, Dolce and Mi von Ahn.
He has a studio based practice and creates electronic music with an interest in developing works focusing on timbre, melody and harmony in repetition based form structures. Driven by curiosity in finding new sound relations he’s mainly working with synthesized and acoustic sources together with field recordings. A substantial part of his work involves working with modular synthesis in the Buchla format, on which he composes and performs live. His music moves between ambient and more multilayered and rhythmically driven pieces.
Recently Klinga has performed his music live at Norberg Festival, Malmö konstmuseum, and Hjorted Art and Music. In relation to the upcoming release of Elusive Shimmer he’s set to have concerts at Mengi (Reykjavik), Ekko festival (Bergen), KET (Athens), Organ Sound Art Festival (Copenhagen), Inkonst (Malmö) and Skaiv (Stockholm). In recent live performances at Norberg Festival and Konstmuseet Malmö, Erik Klinga reimagined his compositions in tandem with the historic church organs and his primary instrument, the Buchla synthesizer; music that will be presented on the next album in the trilogy, due to be released in early 2026.
Erik holds a bachelor degree in Electroacoustic Composition at KMH Stockholm.
