En soph
Three mothers
Nothingness lies coiled in the heart of being
His throne is of fiery flame
Formation
The long Angel

DIY. Way to go. Fuck flogging your sorry ass and begging / hawking your stuff to record labels to get a release for your music. The repeated rejections eventually start sapping life and will. Be your own label. Release whatever music you make at cheap as chip prices. One in the eye to ‘the man’ everywhere. Which is exactly what Henrik Summanen did. This Swedish musician copied old Frank Sinatra and did it his way. Check out his website for more releases. He doesn’t rest on his laurels.

"Ten is the number" sees this classical musician working within the spectrum of experimental dark ambience and absolutely super duper it is too. He…Henrik…likens it part to drone style music… which I don’t readily agree with. Perhaps part musique concrete would be nearer the mark for this is what I identified with throughout the six tracks. Almost sub NWW to some extents. Anyway I’m not going to argue over frivolities as the perceptions of music change from person to person depending on how they actually hear it themselves.

What this recording represents is one mans feel for the darker side to electronic music. Within these tracks all manner of suitably dense and rasping sounds can be found. There’s a fluidity to the pieces that can often be found in the music produced by Lustmord etc that takes on an almost spatial sheen. The music is fairly dense and dank with a hint of creeping foreboding penetrating throughout. All the pieces segue into each other making it sound like on e complex whole instead of individual parts. He even introduces faint voices and other almost organic effects into the mix to keep the venture interesting… which undoubtedly works within this framework.

‘Ten is the number’ gives an interesting insight into the mind of this musician. He’s tackled the well worn ambient genre with aplomb and although not groundbreaking by any stretch of the imagination this is a qualified success for trying a different musical direction. Dark ambient purveyors will most definitely enjoy the experience that "Ten is the number" invokes. Anyone interested in sound manipulation should also give this a look in. Releasing his recordings on his own label, this one to 100 copies, has given him a personal freedom of choice that may not otherwise have been made available… a lesson to all budding musicians / moguls everywhere.

ANM