There’s something oddly satisfying about falling into the music of an enigmatic producer. Maybe it’s just me, but the tendency to over-research and saturate oneself with co-signs from adjacent artists or glowing reviews can itself color the reaction to a record. So, anyway, coming across someone whose work you can unearth very little about is kind of refreshing.
This has been the case recently after getting back into the music of Sven Wunder, who just released a beautiful single, “En Plein Air.”
Try as you might, there’s truly not much information to be found about Wunder himself. His record label, Piano Piano, lists no location (though a little digging tells you it’s based in Stockholm). But the musician in question brings together a range of disparate influences into something extraordinary. Take 2020’s Eastern Flowers, for example, which melds psych-rock with intricate Middle-Eastern influenced string melodies.
There’s a lot of contrasts going on and not necessarily a clear-cut genre, but the production across the catalog is unshakable. Eastern Flowers is one of those records with which I hit play, zoned out in the best way possible, and realized I was on side B without even noticing the track changes.
It’s as good a time as ever to embrace anonymity, so why not start here. Wunder’s next record, Natura Morta, is due out this summer.