About "Structures and Solitude"
Tor Lundvall’s elegant soundtracks have been captured onto nine full length albums and collected within various compilations, raising his stature as one of the most abundant craftsman within the field of ambient music.
Lundvall’s second box set for Dais features a 5 disc collection of more recent works, including the albums Empty City and Last Light, as well as CD versions of the vinyl-only albums Sleeping & Hiding and The Shipyard. Additionally, the fifth disc in the collection entitled Night Studies compiles Lundvall’s "after hours" recording sessions, setting the atmospheric tone for the ensemble. All discs include previously unreleased bonus tracks with a booklet and artwork by Tor Lundvall.
Last Light
"I outlined my earliest ideas for this album in October 2001. My original plan was to record a piano album with sparse electronics. The working title was "November" with the catalogue number EAE006 (later re-assigned to Insect Wings Volume 1). I originally wanted the CD artwork to feature details from my Autumn paintings, so trees and rusty leaves would cover the entire package.
The inspiration came six months later, from a journal entry I wrote in April 2002 entitled Lying in Bed - A Strange Evening'. I remember watching the blueish-grey light shimmering outside and hearing distant sounds echoing far away, eventually sinking into silence and stillness.
Last Light is a personal favorite and I feel it's one of my strongest releases. The music differs from my previous works in that the vocals are more up front and the compositions are sparser and more austere. There's a lot going on beneath the surface, however. Several tracks are based on specific locations near my home while others describe the changing light in my bedroom at various times during the day. The title was taken from one of my paintings which, curiously enough, does not appear on the sleeve."
- Tor Lundvall, January 19th, 2005 (Amended March 2018)
Bonus tracks on 2013 CD / Digital Reissue
"The 2nd edition of Last Light features an early, quieter mix of 'Sunday Evening' with alternate lyrics plus an instrumental version of 'Soft Bipolarity'. The reissue also contains the out-take 'Routine' and the alternate take 'Lost at Sea 2' which were previously released on my Ghost Years retrospective CD. I decided to include these tracks again so all recordings from the period are gathered together in one place. 'Routine' was also mastered directly from my digital 8-track, so the sound quality is richer and warmer than the previous Ghost Years DAT transfer."
- Tor Lundvall, September 12th, 2013
Empty City
"I've always been fascinated by cities in the Northeastern U.S. and how the structures interact with what was once a natural landscape. I used to take the train back and forth between Newark, NJ and Washington DC in the late 1980s. During the night trips, I'd stare out the window at abandoned factories, empty warehouses and other structures bathed in the dull orange or greenish glow of streetlights. I wanted to crawl into that hidden world.
Several years ago, during the mastering session for The Mist, I was captivated by the view from my brother's apartment window which overlooked the Jersey City skyline. The sun was slowly sinking behind the cold and lonely buildings below, casting brilliant orange and crimson light across the room. I watched the luminous patterns drift across the walls while I listened to my music echoing down the hallway. I knew I had to create an album which somehow captured the essence of this moment. The result was something slightly different and more interesting than what I had originally set out to do."
-Tor Lundvall, January 14th, 2006, (Amended March 2018)
Bonus tracks on 2013 CD reissue / digital reissue
"Matt Howden and I discussed collaborating after he contributed his distinctive and evocative string arrangements to "Autumn Calls", so in 2003, I sent him some of my working tracks for Empty City. The collaboration never took root due to other commitments, however Matt added a beautiful string arrangement to my early mix of 'Scrap Yard' and a short vocal verse to 'Early Hours'. Both versions are included as bonus tracks on the "Empty City" reissue along with two out-takes; 'Machinery' and 'Sunset', the latter was originally intended to be the closing track on the album."
- Tor Lundvall, September 12th, 2013
Sleeping and Hiding
"Sleeping and Hiding (two things I'm very good at) was recorded in what seemed like the blink of an eye during the Spring of 2005 and then shelved while I concentrated on other projects. I originally intended this album to be the third and final chapter in the series which also included Last Light and Empty City. When I listen to it now, I feel this album stands alone in its own unique space.
Musically, this album is more song-oriented than most of my previous releases. Many of the tracks were inspired by evening drives through the woods in the late Spring, watching the copper-pink sunlight reflecting off bright, yellow-green blossoms. Other tracks were inspired by specific events, such as 'Falling Trees' which was recorded after my next door neighbor cut down all of the oaks in her backyard, forever changing the view from my porch. 'The Dead Period' is a personal favorite which describes a space I still find myself falling into. The final track, 'Sleeping', manages to conjure up the precise atmosphere of one of my earliest childhood memories; Lying in bed during a bright afternoon as the strange sounds outside lulled me to sleep."
- Tor Lundvall, February 21st, 2009 (Amended March 2018)
Bonus tracks on 2013 CD reissue / digital reissue
"'Evening Walk' and 'The Falling Rain' were originally envisioned as a 7" single that never happened, however they fit quite nicely at the end of the album."
- Tor Lundvall, September 12th, 2013
The Shipyard
"In the Autumn of 1990, I documented a handful of spontaneous audio experiments on a portable tape recorder. One of these pieces was a quiet instrumental entitled 'In a Shipyard'. I worked on a few variations over the following months and then I put the track to rest, hoping to expand on the idea at some point in the future. Almost 20 years later, I finally started recording an album based on the themes and images this old track evoked.
'The Shipyard in Winter' was the first new recording to take shape. This track was constructed around the soft, mechanical loop I used in my original demos. I then altered the loop to construct 'The Shipyard at Dawn' and 'The Shipyard at Night'.
The nautical and industrial sounds on the album were created from scratch and come from some surprising sources. The distant, sluggish melody on 'Under Snow Conditions' is actually a slowed down fragment of distorted piano from 'She's Spinning', a track from the "Ice" album. The two extended tracks, 'Blue Rain Ships' and 'Grey Rain Ships', were constructed by running randomly overlapping tape loops from my archives, so there is an element of chance in these pieces.
The Shipyard is my first entirely instrumental album since Empty City. Like that previous album, the recordings continue to explore my fascination with man made structures interacting with their natural surroundings. The music has a strong sense of place and it recalls the atmospheres and landscapes I had hoped to capture so many years ago."
- Tor Lundvall, April 27th, 2012
Bonus tracks on 2013 CD reissue / digital reissue
"'The Shipyard in Winter' and another out-take entitled 'Safety in Grey' were originally released on the Tursa 2-CD compilation "With Friends Like These..." in 2010 (cross-faded into a single track). For the CD reissue, I separated the tracks and inserted them back into the running order where they originally belonged. I've also included one of my early 'In a Shipyard' demos recorded back in 1991."
- Tor Lundvall, September 12th, 2013
Night Studies
"Night Studies features 18 instrumental vignettes. I loved the process of recording these pieces more spontaneously with very few overdubs."
- Tor Lundvall, September 12th, 2013
