Pop producer goes off-piste with masterful soundscapes.
PATRIK BERGER’S NEW music represents something of a radical left-field turn though the Swedish record producer certainly doesn’t see it that way. “When I make stuff it’s all the same in my head, ”says the man whose CV boasts collaborations with superstars Diana Ross, Kylie Minogue and Taylor Swift. Taking a moment to reflect on what he’s just said, he concedes: “But I mean, I know that this is different, obviously…”
The Stockholm-based multi-instrumentalist’s eponymous debut album under the name Hög Sjö is a concoction of delightfully strange progressive jazz, recorded with some of the best session musicians Scandinavia has to offer. He’d planned to record the whole thing himself, but when he hooked up with his pals, pianist Jesper Nordenström and drummer Nils Törnqvist, it made sense to utilise the talent at his disposal. The record kicks off with a remarkable prog rendition of Erik Satie’s Gnossienne No. 6, replete with spidery drums and shimmery atmospherics.
“I always loved his stuff,” says Berger.“When you listen to pop music for a long time, you start to understand everything after a while, and this I didn’t understand at all. It was like,‘I don’t know what’s going on,’so we kind of took it and turned it into what a band would do with it.”
There’ll certainly be a receptive audience for this record, though it feels like a world away from the mega hits he’s had a hand in, which include Diana Ross and Tame Impala’s Turn Up The Sunshine. Even the name,
Hög Sjö, screams recherché, albeit quietly.“It’s so dumb that I picked a Swedish name for this project,” he says, laughing.
“It’s an expression that has a double meaning. Sailors use it wh
