{"id":467261,"date":"2026-05-26T05:28:07","date_gmt":"2026-05-26T05:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/467261\/"},"modified":"2026-05-26T05:28:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T05:28:07","slug":"blod-forlorarnas-natt-album-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/467261\/","title":{"rendered":"Blod: F\u00f6rlorarnas Natt Album Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ramshackle Swedish folk<\/a>, medieval jam sessions<\/a>, home-spun hymns<\/a> recorded straight to tape, and albums named after revolutionary communist bands<\/a>: The world of Gustaf Dicksson\u2019s musical project Blod<\/a> may seem unbearably esoteric. But a little context helps; Dicksson is a spiritual descendant of Swedish Progg movement<\/a> of the 1960s and \u201970s\u2014not to be confused with prog rock, it was a left-wing, anti-commercial music movement that encompassed a wide range of styles, from psych-rock<\/a> bands to nationally beloved<\/a> singer-songwriters. Blod is indebted to the mossier, more experimental ends of the movement, including bands like Tr\u00e4d, Gr\u00e4s & Stenar<\/a>. This is the anti-capitalist, DIY heritage which Discreet Music\u2014the record store and label run by Dicksson\u2014is keeping alive.<\/p>\n

Blod\u2019s latest record, F\u00f6rlorarnas Natt, or \u201cNight of the Losers,\u201d scans more immediately as \u201970s pastiche. It\u2019s a film score-style album without an actual film to accompany it\u2014though it faithfully recreates the form, sequenced with leitmotifs, themes, and reprises. As concepts go for Dicksson, this isn\u2019t too outr\u00e9; his album Ondskans Fr\u00f6<\/a> (\u201cSeed of Evil\u201d) was billed as the soundtrack to the last day on earth, and its resemblance to the soundtracks of mystics Popol Vuh<\/a> felt intentionally cinematic. But F\u00f6rlorarnas Natt evokes a time when low-budget flicks were given lush scores by Italian composers like Piero Umiliani<\/a> and Riz Ortolani<\/a>, who mixed easy listening and funky instrumentation with uncomplicated melodies you could whistle back after hearing once.<\/p>\n

No score yet, be the first to add.<\/p>\n

Film music for films that don\u2019t exist is a curious niche within a niche, most famously explored by Discreet Music namesake Brian Eno<\/a> on his series Music for Films and More Music for Films<\/a>. While Eno left it to the listener to envision the films his eerie soundscapes could accompany, F\u00f6rlorarnas Natt is less opaque\u2014the title would fit any canonical teen film from Superbad to Ghost World. But Dicksson\u2019s instrumentation firmly places it in the \u201970s: simple soft rock and upbeat country jigs, with Rhodes keys and vintage Korg synthesisers adding a sepia-toned filter. F\u00f6rlorarnas Natt feels plucked from the world of Roy Andersson\u2019s 1970s classic A Swedish Love Story, revered for how composer Bj\u00f6rn Isf\u00e4lt\u2019s tender score<\/a> communicated the longing and uncertainty of being a teenager; here, Dicksson\u2019s characteristically unshowy guitars, simple bass lines, and shaggy drumming convey these same naive emotions.<\/p>\n

On F\u00f6rlorarnas Natt, we follow our protagonist, Jenny, on a night where the fabric of adolescence begins to fray. As per film score convention, the song titles are named after their accompanying scenes. The breezy vignette \u201cF\u00f6rberedelse F\u00f6r Fest\u201d (\u201cPreparation for Party\u201d) captures the sparkly but fleeting excitement of the start of the night; we can imagine the track set to a montage of the girls decanting liquor from their parents\u2019 cabinet while getting dolled up. \u201cHalv\u00e4gs Till Himlen\u201d (\u201cHalfway to Heaven\u201d) marks another seminal moment: the dreamy swirl of synths and low-pass filter mimicking the out-of-body experience of inebriation, or perhaps the swoon of spotting love interest Benny and his perfectly feathered hair across the room\u2014or maybe a heady combination of both. But reality hits in the inevitable \u201cMinnesluckor\u201d (\u201cMemory Gaps\u201d) which trudges along, a descending melody repeating over and over and over. It\u2019s the moment when you come to, standing outside someone\u2019s house heartbroken, nauseous, and missing the stuffed animal you swore you had outgrown.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ramshackle Swedish folk, medieval jam sessions, home-spun hymns recorded straight to tape, and albums named after revolutionary communist…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":467262,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[692,93,61,60,278,514],"class_list":["post-467261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-albums","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-music","tag-web"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467261\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}