During these awful times, we all deserve some progressive mathy goodness to ease our minds. Thanks to SPLINTERED, we found such a treat.
With his atmospheric, groovy, but surreptitiously uplifting sound reminiscent of Plini, Tosin Abasi, and Polyphia’s Tim Henson—to name a few—Rickard Karlsson (yes, he’s the genius behind all that SPLINTERED is) is discreetly breaking through the realm of unworded prog expressionism straight from his bedroom in Manchester, UK.
Karlsson, who has recently released his debut EP called Swimming With Whales for the project, is a promising multi-instrumentalist who focuses on wiring his songs with elements of post-rock, math, and prog. The balanced but unpredictable time signatures he employs give his music a seemingly improvised direction but are nevertheless suggestive of Karlsson’s unpretentious, technical artistry. This guy’s instrumental tunes are damn repeat-worthy.
Describing the EP’s title track, Karlsson notes, “’Swimming With Whales’ is a song that in my eyes (and ears), pretty much tells the story of someone stepping their toes in to the wide world of music and creation for the first time—taking a plunge in to the waters with the whales who have existed for so long in this beautiful ocean.”
“It’s scary at first, but after a while the beauty of it all overwhelms and guides you.”
SPLINTERED is Rickard Karlsson’s first step into the music world and our first instrumental music feature. He’s a great find.
Check out SPLINTERED today and earn Karlsson a fan in you! https://splintered.bandcamp.com
Sam is a mediocre artist, musician, and the founder and editor in chief of UNXIGNED. He is a Juris Doctor who leads an excitingly boring life in the confines of his room juggling studies with passion and dreams. He is terrible at finding balance but gets by anyhow. He wants you to follow his artist pages and channels for when he decides to up his game. Pretty open for collabs and will mix your would-be hit song for cheap.
