Aural Fixations

NICOLAI DUNGER
This Cloud is Learning
(Overcoat)
Originally his third album, Nicolai Dunger's This Cloud is Learning finally sees American release. That it took so long—it was recorded in 1999—is puzzling not only because of the Swedish singer/songwriter's ever-growing status in American underground rock, but also because of his high-profile collaborators on this record. After a pair of experimental recordings that sold diddly, Dunger hooked up with Ebbot Lundberg, frontman for The Soundtrack of Our Lives, and made Cloud at TSOOL's White Noise studio, with Lundberg as producer and the band as backup. The results were, and are, pretty marvelous. Using the TSOOL guys sparingly, Lundberg gives Dunger only the backdrop appropriate to the song at hand. A tastefully-arranged full band gives Van Morrison-like flight to the country rocker "What Tomorrow," while only piano and double bass accompany Dunger on the lovely ballad "While Birds Become Fishes." The mysterious "If I Were a Little Star" and dreamy "Below the Night" drift atop lush acid folk not unlike Love (a significant touchstone for Lundberg and TSOOL), while "Something in the Way" bounces along in a suit of irresistible roots-pop. The title track, appearing here as a bonus cut since it wasn't included the first time 'round, edges toward Jeff Buckley-style epic grandeur, complete with swooping vocals, without ever going over the top. Despite the varied approaches, the album never sounds fractured, as all of the cuts feature Dunger's acoustic strumming and Tim Buckelyesque croon as the backbone from which the skeleton springs. In addition, none of the tracks feature the gleefully bombastic rock & roll that TSOOL does so well, as none of Dunger's songs require that approach. It's a testament to Lundberg's sensitivity as a producer, including presenting a couple of tracks of naked Dunger: "All I Know" and the other bonus cut "First Born Track" both feature just voice and guitar. Indeed, the heart-on-sleeve introspection of the latter caps off the album perfectly, lending a note of pure grace to the enigmatic beauty of the rest of This Cloud is Learning. Michael Toland [buy it]