Stockholm, Sweden, perhaps most famously associated with a certain syndrome, the name of which escapes me for the moment. Aside from that, one may not traditionally attribute Stockholm to desert climates, sun-scorched skies, and barren landscapes occasionally occupied by heat haze and mirages. However, upon listening to Stockholm’s Valley on their debut EP, Sunburst, one might have to reconsider that. I mean, it doesn’t remotely change the fact that those things aren’t true of there, but you’ve got to wonder.
Originally starting out as a three-piece, comprised of Jocke Stefanides (guitar), Erik Sirelius (bass) and Erik Svallingson (djembe, noise), a number of years back, the band took on its full and final form when Theo Wasmouth (guitar) and Daniel Pettersson (drums) joined; taking membership up to a five-piece with a fuller and more driven sound. Valley then got themselves into the studio late last year to record what would become Sunburst, their debut EP.
The end result is four tracks of hypnotic repetition and expansive soundscapes that could so easily be the ambient, audio-hallucinations weaving in and around the mind of a musician lost in the desert, wandering weary and thirsty, caught somewhere between conscious and unconscious. It’s for this reason that this EP will either do nothing for you, or have you entranced – it might, just might, help if you are really high when listening to it – because the music on display isn’t here to catch your attention instantaneously. In fact it’s more than happy for you to drift off whilst listening to it. Sunburst is definitely an EP designed for introspection.
The songs themselves slowly develop over the course of their relatively considerable run times, making use of extensive drones, intricate and dreamy guitar lines that loop and loop and loop, passages of ambient background noise, alongside percussion that often repeats indefinitely acting as the track’s heartbeat. The delicate melodies layered throughout, though, are what eventually worm their way in and stay with you. Not in an incessant stuck in your head kind of way, but more a pleasantly playing away like a film score in the background.
Stylistically, the EP has a very distinct deserty sound throughout, which could be perceived as a little samey over the course of the EPs four tracks, but there’s enough musical nods scattered throughout to vary things up a little, whether it be touches of folk-picking here, some jazzier rhythms there, or some spaced out lead guitar noodling that would 70s Pink Floyd proud. There’s even some Kyuss(at-their-most-melodic-and-least-heavy)esque scales being made use of on tracks like ‘Kiro’, and ‘Dream Shooter, Golden!’ starts not too far away from Deftones at their most blissed out and serene.
Epic closer ‘Picture Puzzle Pattern Door’ is perhaps the highlight of the EP, using its ten minute runtime to showcase a little bit of everything the band do. Even adding some introspective thinking to get mixed up in your own, via a spoken word section that hides itself a little in the mix to maintain the dazed and confused quality of the EP as a whole. However, all that being said, some might not find this to be the most gripping or eclectic EP, with it only really making its details truly separate and known on repeat listens. Then again, though, that’s clearly how it’s supposed to be appreciated; repeatedly. This is music for the lost and speculative. Well, it’s that or the incredibly stoned, or both.
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