Skiftet (The Shift)
What happens when some of Sweden’s most respected electronica-artists are forced to work according to the strict temporal forms that has characterized industrial work for decades?
The answer to this question can be found on the compilation Skiftet.
Image captured from the Skiftet film
It all started with eight electronica artists gathering in Container studios in Stockholm to create music. During an eight-hour shift they improvised together with their laptops and various instruments. The clock was ticking inexorably and the musical labour was only interrupted for lunch and coffee breaks. The eight hours of improvised electronica were recorded on tape, and at the end of the day each of the artists received one hour of music that they mixed and edited to one of the eight tracks on the CD. The compilation includes tracks by artists like Håkan Lidbo, Andreas Tilliander, Tomas Andersson, Jean-Louis Huhta etc. Besides being a creative experiment, this is also a Swedish electronica all stars compilation. But this isn’t all you get. The CD also includes a 16 minute musical documentary by Anders Weberg based on interviews and occurences during the working shift.
One of the aims with this project has been to combine music with science by letting electronica meet ethnological culture research. By starting this project the initiators Håkan Lidbo (one of Sweden´s most respected producers of electronic music) and Robert Willim (PhD in European Ethnology at Lund University) wanted to examine ideas about work, creativity and the ways that innovativity can be related to routinization. Another aim was to explore new ways to create electronic music. The musical result ranges from dance oriented tracks to more introspective soundscapes.
Here's the complete tracklist. Click on the different tracks to listen to a one minute mp3-teaser.