SHADOW PATTERN - LIVE AT SOMEWHERE LP

"I call it ‘the Shadow Pattern Vignette’. A fragmentary and pleasingly non-discriminatory exercise in audio capture which, when sequenced, compiled or arranged alongside other such vignettes, leads to the finished work of Nate Ivanco’s Shadow Pattern. You can reach into the hermetic depths of his Hamilton Tapes micro label, recent transatlantic appearances via Infant Tree, Chocolate Monk or adhuman, or indeed, this new LP ‘Live at Somewhere’ and find the Shadow Pattern Vignette. Forever in evidence as the clear constituent part from which the whole is always produced.

Such a method is easily described by the oft-applied generalism ‘sound collage’, however, there is rawness; a purity, an essence to Ivanco’s intuitive vocabulary that situates his material beyond what that term evokes for me. Instead, I sense an internal logic to the Shadow Pattern Vignette that operates within an almost conventional tradition of bedroom music-making; saturated with ‘hit record and play’ homespun liveness that endures whatever the final form of the resulting session. No surprise then that ‘Live at Somewhere’ was birthed from studio renditions of material either performed in real time or developed for live performance, with significant quantities of their 12-inch real estate committed to the long-form fleshing out of tonally inclined instrument-based pieces.

Side A’s workout for poorly dubbed guitar and pipe lurches from modes of fluttering mulch and coughing electronic intervention to freer states of pure playback; settling into a lulling wash of harmonics, hiss and scrape. Likewise, Side B’s sniffin’, gruntin’, fourth-wall-shatterin’ take on the pianoforte spends ample minutes letting the tinkling ivories speak for themselves. By the time the sound of moaning ferric via strained capstans and quivering belts makes its reappearance, the listener is struck by how finely its timbres mesh with an auditory context equally prizing the rattle of frame or squeak of stool amidst the hammering of notes and chords. Both pieces are rich with detail and unpredictable turns of event, yet the atmosphere of the work taken in its entirety is where the music feels familiar and trademark to the project.

Does ‘Live at Somewhere’ push the inherent musicality of Ivanco’s language further to the fore? Or is such evolution baked into the Shadow Pattern Vignette? Perhaps this is the sound of Nate rising to the occasion of his first outing on mass-produced wax via Discreet – a label known for its championing of the murky AND melodic? Is any of this true for Nate or just my pontificating ass fulfilling a writing brief? I’m several listens in and all I know for sure is that I love this record and keep wanting to hear it again. In summary: inherently playable DIY home taping FFO: Spoils & Relics, Graham Lambkin’s ‘Aphorisms’, ’00s Midwestern basements, Afvikling Kassetter, Guinness." - Duncan Harrison, Jan 2026

Discreet Music 33, 2026

Edition of 300 copies

BLOD - FÖRLORARNAS NATT CD

New 12-track Blod album recorded spring 2025, and the first one since Livets Ord from 2018 to be recorded entirely in a studio, this time at Omnivox Studio in Borlänge. Förlorarnas Natt is an all instrumental album and Gustafs intention was to make a soundtrack-style album with a strong cinematic feel. Even though there is no existing movie, yet, the story takes you through a Friday night in the life of a young person and the first meetings with the adult world. Naïve hopefulness, sore feelings and the final betrayals and broken promises from the adults. Musical inspirations on Förlorarnas Natt has been Italian stuff like Patty Bravo and Pieo Umiliani but also, like always, Swedish composers like Björn Isfält and Benny Andersson.

All music and instruments performed by Gustaf Dicksson, except the drums which Ola Höglund plays. Ola has also recorded and mixed the album. Mastered by Lasse Marhaug. Jewelcase with 8-page booklet.

DMCD07, 2026

Edition of 300 copies

CARRIE DECUNZO MIRANDE - MY SHADOW LP

Discreet Music encountered Philadelphia-based Carrie Decunzo Mirande for the first time in 2024 when she performed at Longest Night in Gothenburg alongside Arv & Miljö and Christian Mirande. A computer musician, pianist, vocalist and video and installation artist, her work deals with social and ecological ethics, and she incorporates visual language and theater into her compositional and performance practice. On the beautiful and strangely evocative 11-song album My Shadow, Carrie weaves together sound poetry with digital synthesis, harmonizing vocals and field recordings, the result being one of the brightest shining debut albums we heard in quite a while. My Shadow follows up releases on labels like No Rent and Hold.

"I was prompted to read the twenty-four chapters of the Book of Luke in the twenty-four days before Christmas of 2024. I tried to write music about it but struggled. I wrote two songs for piano inspired by Luke 6:45, what overflows from the heart comes out the mouth, and Luke 1:22, in which Zechariah is made mute as punishment for his disbelief in the word of God made known to him by the angel Gabriel. I was unsatisfied with these pieces and set them aside. My heart knew intimately what the music should say, but what came out of me was flat, useless, and wrong.

My Shadow is my first full length LP and it deals with this frustration, of articulative failure, loss of voice, lack of trust in ones convictions, in feeling powerless in the face of scales of violence which are difficult to comprehend. It offers hope, grief, resignation, desperate bargaining with self and God. Lose the thread trying to say what’s unspeakable, find grace sealing yourself in what’s unknowable."- Carrie

Discreet Music 31, 2026

Edition of 300 copies

OUT OF PRINT

SEWER ELECTION + ÅN - DE SÄLLA JAKTMARKERNA LP

De Sälla Jaktmarkernais a collaborative effort recorded during 2024 in Kortedala in the outskirts of Gothenburg. The Discreet Music mainstay Dan Johansson of Sewer Election shouldn´t need any further introduction at this point, but Ån might still be new to most. Behind the name hides Matz Engdahl, another Gothenburg late bloomer involved in the milieu around Longest Night and whatnot. A much praised self-released cassette came out earlier this year but thiis is the first major output from the artist. 

The duo invites the listener to a mesmerizing suburban journey that feels like a dissolving snapshot of something arcane and long lost just as much as it feels very here and now. The synth work explored during the last few years by Dan takes new turns as it intersects with lush organ melodies, environmental recordings and expanded drones. While being a rather minimal album, the bold presence of evocative yet simple melodies invokes a strange sense of a forgotten time and place, a familiar yet unknown ambience draped in gritty Kortedala-lore.

Discreet Music 30, 2025

Edition of 300 copies

OUT OF PRINT

NIKLAS PERSSON TRIO - LIVE AT TEATER TRIBUNALEN LP

The long overdue first proper jazz album on Discreet Music! NiklasPerssonTriois a free jazz group consisting of three of Sweden's leading improvisers. The triostarted 10 years ago on the initiative of double bassist Patric Thorman and saxophonist NiklasPersson. From meeting and playing casually at drummer Raymond Strid's home in Heby for many years, the group now unveils their first powerful statement. The album was recorded live at the FRIM festival at Teater Tribunalen in August 2024 and for 35 minutes the trioblasts on with their highly energetic and life-elevating free jazz, sort of in the emotive spirit of Eric Dolphy with some echoes of Anthony Braxton though with an own identity and a distinctive Scandinavian touch. The members has previously been active with acts and artists like Gush, Kvintetten Som Sprängdes, Brända Broar and Roland Keijser. Artwork by Gustaf Dicksson.

Discreet Music 29, 2025

Edition of 300 copies

STENHJÄRTA - 2 LP 

The second album from Stenhjärta follows up Gryning Kommer Röd (Grapefruit Records, 2024) and very much continues in the same vein while approaching a rather damn catchy pop song format at times. Fear not, Stenhjärta is still a group heavily rooted in the Swedish prog/folk tradition of the 70's, the 13 songs here just showcases a somewhat wider scope, the duo taking things a notch further with more elaborate songwriting and a whole slew of wonderful A-sides along the often damaged ride. Lyrically, the absurd and heartfelt working class observations that throughout the album are mixed up with a bunch of seriously heavy hitting loner anthems recalls the more rowdy sides of Swedish masters like Kjell Höglund and Ulf Dageby, or why not Kenta. A lo-fi diamond that will keep on giving. Mastered by Lasse Marhaug. Comes with lyric sheet.

Stenhjärta consists of Gustaf Dicksson & Magnus Jäverling. Both are active in the Swedish underground music scene centered in Gothenburg. Gustaf is known for his shape-shifting prolific solo project, Blod, as well as his participation in the notable music collective, Enhet för Fri Musik. Magnus is somewhat newer to the scene, appearing on some Blod recordings as well as releasing a fascinating concept album called Bowdark on the Discreet Music label back in 2022.

Discreet Music 28, 2025

Edition of 300 copies

JUHO TOIVONEN - LAPSIKUNINKAAN FANFAARI LP

Juho Toivonen’s Lapsikuninkaan Fanfaari is a work of paradox — both intimate and expansive, tender yet eerie, a fanfare that seems to drift from the past into the present like a half-remembered dream.

A slight departure from his previous releases, this album finds Toivonen in a more song-oriented mode, though still deeply embedded in his signature world of loops, droning textures, and spectral piano melodies. The album is in stereo, with a richer, more mature palette that includes trumpet contributions from Raimo Sinnemäki on tracks 1 and 4. The inclusion of vocals — more present here than in past works — adds another human layer to its ghostly, fragmented atmosphere. At its core, Lapsikuninkaan Fanfaari is an exercise in stretching time and shaping memory’s shifting terrain. Toivonen describes his music as something akin to the faded recollection of a melody – what music might sound like when recalled after years of experiencing silence.

This blurred approach to sound is underscored by the use of an off-key Walheim piano, a recurring presence in his recordings, and the warmth of a four-track tape recorder, lending the album its organic, tactile quality. The album unfolds with the logic of a fever dream, a narrative of some sorts, but one that refuses to settle. Inspirations range from personal touchstones — childhood, stuffed animals, bridges, love, and hate. Much like with the previous two long players Toivonen’s creative process remains rooted in improvisation, with compositions emerging from spontaneous gestures before being sculpted into their final form. This release marks the second chapter in a trilogy — a self-mythological journey that begun in birth and early childhood via Sisarusten Toistuva Uni, and now unfolds tenderly into imagined futures and alternative realities...

Discreet Music 27, 2025

Edition of 500 copies

OUT OF PRINT

PRIMITIVE MOTION - LOST FREQUENCIES 2CD

"...Through Lost Frequencies, Primitive Motion uncover something that’s simultaneously deeply archaic and vitally modern, and while there aren’t too many reference points for what they’re doing, there are maybe a few lines to draw between this music and singular voices like Pascal Comelade, Nico circa Desertshore, Biota, Księżyc, Arthur Russell, Kemialliset Ystävät. There are similarities in sound, sure - the hum of reed organ on “Curiosities of the Sky” or melodica on “Dimensional Fans”, in conjunction with Selig’s levitating voice, are audio madeleines – but Primitive Motion share with these artists, most of all, both devotion to craft, and surety of focus. Over time, a luxury afforded by Lost Frequencies, Primitive Motion take the music elsewhere – which is the only place it really should go." - Jon Dale

DMCD06, 2025

Edition of 500 copies

ENHET FÖR FRI MUSIK - LÅT OSS VADA GENOM ALL ÄNGSLAN TILLSAMMANS LP

Originally released on Förlag För Fri Musik back in 2015, now finally reissued on Discreet Music. A very important piece in the Gothenburg-puzzle and the milieu around acts like Amateur Hour, Blod, Leda, Arv & Miljö and Sewer Election that eventually culminated in Discreet Music. Recorded in Gothenburg, winter 2014, by Dan Johansson, Sofie Herner, Gustaf Dicksson and Hugo Randulv. The new edition stays true to the original release with identical hand assembled cover sleeves in varying colors.

Discreet Music 26, 2025

Edition of 500 copies

ARV & MILJÖ LP

The final album from Arv & Miljö consists of two sidelong pieces based almost entirely on field recordings. The recordings roughly span from 2014 to 2024 and were primarily recorded in Gothenburg, capturing life-affirming moments from an intense decade through snippets from endless summer nights out, great people desperately wanting more from life, hazy underground culture encounters and just random, confusing everyday nonsense that somehow still has its place here. The coarse but often profound vibes of a working class port city might run through it all but it’s an album about friendship, getting older and DIY culture more than anything else. While indeed abstract in its approach, the album is still strangely musical as a huge chunk of the sounds comes from people playing and singing in the streets and bars, songs being blasted from car windows, random sing-alongs and the general mess the drunken battle about the aux cord usually results in. The album sort of functions as an epilogue to everything that was Arv & Miljö - a restless and cacophonic but somewhat beautiful mess. Thanks for listening.

The LP comes with a 12-page booklet telling the story of Arv & Miljö through 27 releases and 18 shows. Mastered by Lasse Marhaug.

Discreet Music 25, 2025

Edition of 300 copies

OUT OF PRINT

V/A - FIVE YEARS OF FAILURE LP

Five year anniversary compilation from Discreet Music featuring new or unreleased music from Facit, Eftergift, Demeters Döttrar, Sewer Election, Juho Toivonen, Leda, Shadow Pattern, Livskraft, Arv & Miljö and Franciska. As stated in the extensive liner notes, a little bit of everything and something for everyone, capturing the very essence of Discreet Music while at the same time looking forward rather than back.

Comes with a A1 poster as well as an insert. Screenprinted artwork on recycled old cover jackets. Mastered by Lasse Marhaug.

Discreet Music 24, 2025

Edition of 500 copies

OUT OF PRINT

HUGO RANDULV - DRUNKNA I LJUS LP

The much anticipated sophomore solo album from Hugo Randulv (Enhet För Fri Musik, Amateur Hour, Makthaverskan etc). Drunkna I Ljus was composed and recorded mainly during 2024 and consists of two sidelong epics based entirely on electric cello with a sparse use of controlled guitar feedback. The album follows up the celebrated Radio Arktis that was released on Förlag För Fri Musik back in 2021. The overall ambience and cold yet weirdly encouraging harmonies from the debut album are recognizable and still present, but otherwise this is a much more stripped down affair in every possible way. While comparisons could be made with some Obscure Records classics and whatnot, this is at the same time music that owes just as much to contemporary Gothenburg as it does to experimental cassette culture in general. A minimal masterpiece of immense beauty.

Discreet Music 23, 2025

Edition of 500 copies