Støvfigur - Støvfigur [Review]
About
Copenhagen-based music and visual artist Paw Grabowski has been lurking behind the øjeRum moniker for just over a decade now, and immediately sprung to my attention when I first heard, and saw, his music. After studying philosophy, he started making surreal collages from old images foraged from the city’s second-hand book scene, which he uses to great effect on his cover art, and progressed to releasing music about five years later. Interestingly, his first releases were singer-songwriter soundscapes with the sort of fragile, singular vocal style and genuine quality that I love, but for whatever reason his vocal endeavours petered out, and he settled into a more or less bi-annual instrumental ambient, neoclassical and deep electronic release schedule, and although I’d be happy to hear more of his softly spun thoughts, he also says a lot without words. I should also mention that, rather like so many artists I cover, he’s a criminally unsung producer, with just two thousand monthly listeners on Spotify, and currently not even breaking the thousand-stream mark on any tracks from this album, which is when stats become visible and music earns him money on the platform. It’s a travesty.
Review
Whilst the majority of his releases are ambient transmissions with submerged acoustic elements, he’s also teased some deep, hypnotic, eyes-down, beat-led electronica over the years via his Selected Percussive Works series - now at volume IV, and I love them even more than his flat-out ambient works, and that’s saying something. This Støvfigur album, for the ever-great 12K label, is a further showcase for his rhythmic creations.
‘Den falmede kreds’ launches this self-titled album onto a low-lit planet far away, which seems to be the home Grabowski favours; the rhythm lolloping across the cratered surface and rippling out into the surrounding void. Mood set, ‘lyset gennem støvet i luften falder’s’ rhythm reminds me of a classic Prescription record’s track whose name I never bothered to learn, whilst the fluttering alien fauna and rhythmic clicks diffuse micro-sound sparks in the hazy drone’s shadows. After slipping into an ambient-hole, ‘heksedod’ comes as something of a wake up call, immediately hitting harder and making itself useful to less-secure ambient-curious DJs who still need a reassuring thud in their start of night tunes.
‘Smuldrende sol’ drops the tempo and should appeal to the homebound, but still buzzing ravers, with its emotive, more recognisable synth pads, whilst its neighbour ‘asket skær’ should ease the party withdrawal and reality re-entry pains. This is an album for the forty-eight-hour party people though, and ‘sortflor’ is a slow-mo deep house joy that should give your blood sugar levels a boost, and although you know you shouldn’t, encourage you to do it all again the next night. If you make it out of the front door, ‘stækkede stemmer’s’ warm throb and unusually glistening dub techno vibe will kickstart your serotonin and dopamine signals, and ‘efter lys’, the album closer, will nudge you past the humourless Berlin doorstaff, through the graffitied club entrance, and onto the slowly filling dancefloor for another lost night.
If this low-lit, hazy electronic vibe is your thing then you should probably check out Purelink's Faith album on Peak Oil.
Just in case you want to check out his ambient side, and hot on the heels of this Støvfigur album, he’s just dropped a new long-form neoclassical work on what must be this years best-looking cassette, for those who still remember what they are! I was trying to explain what a cassette was to a twenty-year-old computer science student last week, and when I showed him a picture and explained it, he said ‘so it was like a USB’, which made me chuckle and has an element of truth, as it was used to deliver and upload software on the earliest home computers.
This review ran in TSMM's November 10th newsletter. If you'd like album tips direct to your inbox or the Substack app — plus the odd bit of industry insight and existential musing from TSMM HQ — you can subscribe here.
Playlist Companion
Find Støvfigur in the Slowtronic Playlist.
