Minnesmärke: Neue LP von Mats Erlandsson

Dröhner und Multiinstrumentalist Mats Erlandsson bringt ein neues Album heraus, an dem desweiteren Hilary Jeffery (Posaune, Tuba), Gaianeh Pilossian (Violine) und Yair Elazar Glotman (Kontrabass) mitwirken. “Minnesmärke” setzt sich thematisch mit der Sozialgeschichte des mittelschwedischen Bergbaugebietes Bergslagen auseinander und entstand im Kontext einer Artist Residency im Kunstzentrum Ställbergs Gruva. Minnesmärke” erscheint als LP bei Hallow Ground und ist digital bereits erhältlich.

“Originally a commissioned work by the Non Existent Center for a month-long artist residency in Ställbergs Gruva last Summer, »Minnesmärke« conceptually picks up on the socio-political and economic history of the Bergslagen region where the mine is situated. After mining operations had been on-going for decades prior, in the Industrial Age iron became one of the country’s largest exports, making the mining industry an integral part of the country’s progression towards a socialdemocratic welfare state in the years after World War II. With the rise of neoliberalism and the simultaneous erosion of the welfare state however, the mines around the region started closing, which resulted in the surrounding community losing its relative prosperity. Erlandsson’s interest in this story though does not exclusively stem from the historical significance of the mine, that has been re-opened in 2012 as a centre for cultural activities and critical thought. In fact, his grandfather was born and raised in the vicinity of it and thus his life – and, by extension, his grandson’s – was inextricably linked to its fate and the ebbs and flows of the industrial development in the area.” (Hallow Ground)