ORDER THE VINYL HERE (Free international delivery)
Mikael Strömberg’s alter ego Igor has created the album “Fast & Slow” who is an aspiring masterpiece in the ambient genre, the references are very clear to the 70’s iconic Ambient school, including Satie-Cage-Eno-SoundArt but at the same time a modern touch and a sense of the present. The story behind this album is the least frightening and fascinating as the composer Strömberg was seconds away from losing his lives when the aorta ruptured all the way from top to bottom with the diagnosis: acute aortic dissection. The music became a part of his rescue and the record “Fast and Slow” came about as part of his healing process.
Mikael Strömberg has been working as a musician and artist in text-sound-picture context since the early 1980s. He gets up in the morning and feel if there is a “music day”, perhaps a “text day”, possibly a “day of filming” or just plain unusual day. The actual uncertainty is a prerequisite. It usually result in radio shows, books, articles, CDs, exhibitions, sound installations and film music. For example, three acclaimed text-sound works together with the cartoonist Joakim Pirinen: Africa (2005), The birds’ wonderful life (2007) and Beauty Murders (2008). He has written electronic music to art air and smoke sculptures, exhibited throughout the cities as sound monuments, designed sound for trucks, started a sound atlas of endangered sounds mm.
Igor – Fast & Slow is released on vinyl LP and digitally
Release date May 8, 2015
Artwork: Sten Backman
Master: Joakim Westlund (Alpha Mound)
Photo: Britt Mattsson
This record is released with support from Swedish Arts Council.
_____________________________________________________________
REVIEWS
YouTube’s most interesting music bloggers, Dereckvon 20/4 2015
_____________________________________________________________
Rivet selections
“Listening to it transported me to a byzantine opium den infested by rabid scarabs. Which is not really a pleasant place to be, but hey there’s opium.”
Read full post at: http://rivetselects.blogspot.se/2016/05/rivet-selections-may-2016.html
_____________________________________________________________
Vital Weekly #979
“Just as Eno once came to ambient music lying down on his hospital bed, so does Igor, but his results are quite different than that of mister ‘Discreet Music’. More musique concrete like techniques from the world of computers applied to the sound of the piano. Very nice.”
Read full post at: http://www.vitalweekly.net/979.html
_____________________________________________________________
Allt för musik 4/5 2015 (in swedish)
“Musiken på detta album är 10 spår som blandar hårt, mjukt och drömskt med pianot i centrum. Höjdpunkterna är såklart Imduroch Nifedipin som i över 10 minuter var och en summerar känslan för albumets två sidor, det mer ambienta drömska pianospelet i det förstnämnda och lekande med ljud och effekter i det andra.”
Read the full post at: http://alltformusik.se/ambient-ur-nara-doden-med-fast-slow-av-igor/
_____________________________________________________________
Nöjesguiden 6/5 2015 (in swedish) 
Read full post at: http://nojesguiden.se/recensioner/musik/igor-fast-and-slow
_____________________________________________________________
Gefle Dagblad 6/5 2015 (in swedish) 
“Egentligen har jag svårt att sätta sifferbetyg, jag vet bara att jag får en klar känsla av att vara tacksam över att ha hälsan i behåll efter att ha lyssnat. Och hur många album där ute väcker såna känslor hos en?”
Read full post at: http://www.gd.se/noje/musik/skivrec-plattan-ar-delvis-inspelad-fran-en-sang-pa-gavle-sjukhus
_____________________________________________________________
Arbetarbladet 6/5 2015 (in swedish)
“Det är imponerande att höra hur väl Mikael Strömberg skildrar sina otäcka upplevelser. Han fångar sjukhusets kylighet och maskinernas dominans. Och den ångestpräglade ensamheten när mörkret kryper för nära på natten.”
Read full post at: http://www.arbetarbladet.se/kultur/musik/ett-album-om-att-nastan-do
_____________________________________________________________
SIMBA (Swedish Independent Music Business Alternative) #4 7/5 2015 (in swedish)
“På albumet Fast & Slow fortsätter han producera stycken som fortsätter framåt längst de stigar som kan sägas leda från Satie via John Cage fram till Brian Eno och vidare framåt inom ambientgenren.”
Read full post here
_____________________________________________________________
Review from Lux Atenea webzine
““Fast And Slow”, desde Suecia, excelente combinación artística de música ambient y formato en vinilo de la mano de LAMOUR RECORDS. ¡¡¡Disfrútenlo!!!”
Read full post at: http://www.luxatenealibros.blogspot.se/2015/05/igor-fast-and-slow.html
_____________________________________________________________
Review from Ikon
(in swedish)
Read full post at: http://ungtro.com/recensioner/ett-album-som-kraver-aktivt-lyssnande
_____________________________________________________________
Review from kulturterrorismus.de (in german)
“Auch ohne das einschneidende Lebensereignis von MIKAEL STRÖMBERG zu kennen, versetzt sein MEISTERWERK „Fast & Slow“ in totale Trance – meine absolute KAUFEMPFEHLUNG! Wer Ambient auf allerhöchstem Niveau sucht, MUSS dieses äußerst kurzweilige Gesamtkunstwerk unbedingt sein Eigen nennen, das in jedem Moment berührt & fasziniert – WAHNSINN!”
Read full post at: http://kulturterrorismus.de/rezensionen/igor-fast-slow.html
_____________________________________________________________
Review from Chain DLK
“The references to some icons of 70ies ambient school as wel as proper classics such Brian Eno, John Cage and Erik Satie are guessed: the mysterious and somewhat melancholic nuance of Satie’s composition could often comes to mind while listening to piano phrasing by Igor, who often transforms its sound by techniques for prepared piano, which are not so different from the ones by John Cage, or by celestial reverberations that recurs on very first ambient acts by Brian Eno, or itnegrate it with toy piano or brilliantly shaped electronic analog sounds.”
Read full post at: http://www.chaindlk.com/reviews/?id=8858