A rare glimpse of the exploratory listening habits of Civilistjävel!.
Civilistjävel! takes his name from a shouted line of invective taken from Ådalen 31, a film from Swedish director Bo Widerberg exploring the 1931 Ådalen shootings, when Swedish military forces killed five labour demonstrators in the Ådalen sawmill district. Translating roughly as “civilian bastard!”, the exclamatory aggression imbued in the alias evokes a sort of artistic nom de guerre, striking a discordant tone with the hazy drift and foggy pulse of the enigmatic artist’s sound. Yet appropriating the language of state violence only lends to the mystery, intentional or otherwise, of the man who has been described as “a figment of the pre-internet era.”
Over the course of his first five projects, self-released to rapturous response with the help of Low Company Records, Civilistjävel! burrows through the pulsating textures and chilly throb of ambient and dub techno, a sound he would go on to refine, expand and reshape on two more releases for the reliably brilliant FELT, Järnnätter and Fyra platser. Seemingly summoned from the ether of pre-digital electronic experimentation, the artist refuses to bow to the algorithm, releasing music without explanation, stirring archival material from the ’90s and ’00s in with more recent work.
“Music is about community and connecting with people,” he told Truants in 2022. “I believe algorithms simply are not good at this, or conducive to a healthy music community.” This ire towards streaming platforms, as well his optimism for the communities that might flourish in their absence, blossoms throughout his Fact mix, a winding pilgrimage through newer material and older oddities that finds kindred musical spirits across continents and decades, providing us with a glimpse of the listening habits of an artist who succeeds in hearing through the noise.
You can find Civilistjävel on Instagram and Bandcamp.
Tracklist:
Jenny Vinterqvist – ‘Through My Deforestation’
Topdown Dialectic – ‘B4’
Akrüül – ‘TR003’
Eszaid – ‘Indraic Cut’
Yushh – ‘Kara Arriba’
Dites Safran – ‘Boka’
Civilistjävel! – ‘Järnnätter (Ossia remix)’
Rosso Polare – ‘Albanella’
Bavuma – ‘Festmusik (Gaava Buyere)’
Litüus – ‘Prtn: 003/2’
Bandulu – ‘Thunder Asunder’
Gorgonn – ‘Invisible’
Romeli Kerabinki – ‘Liturgical Chant’
Laila Sakini – ‘Message 002’
Eva Rune, Agneta Stolpe, Susanne Rosenberg, etc. – ‘Vallmusik Kring Stångtjärn’
Mayssa Jallad – ‘Burj Al Murr (October 25 to 27)’
Poeia – ‘Azure’
Svanökören – ‘Mitt län’
Yara Asmar – ‘There Is A Science To Days Like These (But I Am A Slow Learner)’
Kalia Vandever – ‘Temper the Wound’
Musique Berbère Du Haut-Atlas – ‘Chants De Mariage’
Death And Vanilla – ‘Find Another Illusion (Civilistjävel! Version)’
Listen next: Fact Mix – Venetta
