Masters Of Fog is a peach of an album. It’s the brainchild of a very able Swedish quartet going by the name of Tonbruket, among their number is the well known bass player Dan Berglund of E.S.T and various musical partnerships including Bugge Wesseltoft. The rest of the quartet consists of Martin Hederos on piano and keys, Johan Lindström on guitars and Andreas Werliin on drums and percussion.
It’s hard to describe the music the quartet creates in terms of genre or type but at times it sounds as if they tried to create an updated soundtrack to Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. It has a large cinematic feel in places, and a strange national steel guitar effect that lends a flavour of Americana to the whole affair. Grunge rock must have impressed someone in the group as a track titled The Barn sounds like a tribute to Nirvana, elsewhere however their instrumental creations are located somewhere between electronica and Baroque.
It feels like a live recording and I came away from listening to the album imagining that these four very able musicians just walked into a recording studio and jammed for a while. The album is very well recorded and has a wide and deep sound stage accompanied by deep and fast bass notes. Highly recommended.
Reuben Klein