Henrik Rylander and Joachim Nordwall premiere new solo works and a Skull Defekts duo project for Lampo, in their U.S. debut.

Rylander and Nordwall formed the Skull Defekts in early 2005, joined by their common interests in noise, drone and monotonous rock. Heavily rhythmic, their music rides a consistent beat, as new sounds emerge in and around a steady pulse.

Here, they offer The Sound of Defekt Skulls & Intense Cranium Contact (Feedbacking Gothenburg & Chicago). The two musicians will mix found sounds from Gothenburg with new sonic material collected locally.

Also on the program: Nordwall performs I Am The Fire and Rylander presents Power Model X (Motherboard Drone with Live Treatment). In the latter, conceived as installation and live concert, he uses 11 small mixers and The Henrik Rylander Feedback Unit—all connected to a large audio mixer—where each of the mixers is modified with an audio cable from input to output.

Henrik Rylander (b.1966, Malmö, Sweden) is an artist, composer and photographer. He has performed in several important festivals and venues, including the Stockholm New Music Festival (2006), Impakt Festival (Utrecht, Holland, 2005), GAS (Gothenburg, Sweden, 2005), Århus (Denmark, 2005), Sónar Festival (Barcelona, Spain, 2004) and multiple performances at Fylkingen in Stockholm. Additionally, he has made nine solo exhibitions of his installation work, including shows at Färgfabriken in Stockholm, as well as several shows throughout Gothenburg. Rylander has received numerous awards and recognition for his work, including STIM (The Swedish Performing Rights Society) grant (2005), The Swedish Arts Grants Committee (2001), and The Robert Frank Scholarship (1998). He has performed in a trio with Pan Sonic, and as part of the improv jazz project Space Is The Place with Mats Gustafsson, Ken Vandermark, Lasse Marhaug, David Stackenäs and Paal Nilssen-Love. Rylander also is known for being the drummer and co-founder of the rock combo Union Carbide Productions (1986-1993). In 1992 Union Carbide Productions recorded their last album Swing with Steve Albini in Chicago. Rylander lives in Gothenburg.

Joachim Nordwall (b.1975, Karlskrona, Sweden), the Idealist, began experimenting in sound as a young boy. In 1987, he formed the Alvars Orkester with Jan Svensson in Johannishus, a small village in the south-east of Sweden. Alvars, which mixes electronic sound with interests in psychic broadcasting and EVP (Electronic Voice Phenomena), was particularly active within the independent music scene of the 80s and 90s, releasing works in Sweden through the Börft Records label. After a brief hiatus, the group has recently (Jan. 2006) released the Interference album on London’s Ash International label, showcasing their superb analog sound experiments. From 1998-2005, he was part of the avant punk rock trio Kid Commando, a band that toured Europe several times. Also in 1998, he founded the iDEAL Organization as a platform for his ongoing work as an artist, label owner and festival organizer. Nordwall has collaborated with many artists, including Henrik Rylander, Keith Rowe, Leif Elggren and Mats Gustafsson. He lives in Gothenburg.

Support provided by the American-Scandinavian Foundation