“The mantra that you’re given in Transcendental Meditation you keep to yourself. The reason being, true happiness is not out there, true happiness lies within” - so states David Lynch, a vocal proponent of this art on a twice-daily basis since 1973. It’s a maxim that holds true to Sweden’s Centrum, whose Rocket Recordings debut forms no less than a mysterious yet meaningful voyage into inner space.
Indeed, on ‘För Meditation’ these sometime members of Hills and Weary Nous explore a soundworld that demonstrates all too adeptly that true heaviness of intent need not be the preserve of demonic riffs and highly cranked amps. Weaving a dense and beguiling tapestry of drone-based hypnosis, mantric vocal chants and ritualistic folk along with field recordings from a trip the members made to India, this band also inadvertently plots our a map from the experimental music of the early-‘70s to the present, alighting on a myriad touchstones on the way.
Yet tempting through it may be to place ‘För Meditation’ amidst the uniquely Swedish lineage of primal and arcadian Psychedelia that began with artists like Arbete Och Fritid, Träd, Gras och Stenar and International Harvester, the band are keen to emphasise that inspiration arrives at Centrum from all quarters. “From Pandit Pran Nath to Trees, from Velvet Underground to Popol Vuh, anything and everything.
