Fredfades - Caviar (LP)

Fredfades is finally ready with his second album as a solo artist. The producer and DJ has remained active as a musician ever since his debut single in 2008. Since he released his debut solo album 'Warmth' six years ago he's been diving into a bunch of different genres and crossing musical landscapes such as ambient, hip-hop and house, which has led to releases and productions across labels like his own Mutual Intentions imprint, as well as bigger labels like Stones Throw, Fresh Selects and Jakarta Records. This sonic voyage has resulted in ‘Caviar’ - an album that tells the story of a producer who's ready to let go of his youthful love and indulge himself to electronic music. Fredfades' name is more often seen on foreign club posters than back home in Norway. This has coloured the musical expression of the Oslo-born multidisciplinary artist, and on ‘Caviar’ he draws inspiration from every corner of the world he’s traveled. You can clearly hear influences from the sounds of Rome, Manchester, South-Africa, Detroit, New York, Berlin, Paris and the Balearic ocean, all well represented throughout the album's eight tracks. If you close your eyes and put your ears close to the speakers you will hear loons, running water, African percussion instruments, roaring saxophones, bit-crushed samples, moaning women, TB 303’s, bottom-heavy bass lines and recordings of whales communicating at the bottom of the ocean. Everything seamlessly fused in Fredfades’ own sonic world view. The album features a bunch of talented friends of Fred, such as the producer and DJ Telephones, vocalists MoRuf and Kristian Hamilton. Despite being known as more of a progressive and edgy DJ that hunts down indie and private press electronic music, Fredfades has cultivated a more elegant and controversial output in his own music. His progressions often consist of dwelling jazz chords from electric pianos or mellow sub-filtered synth patches that create space where he can unleash rowdy basslines, rhythm sections and leads just as confident and captivating as the man himself. On the jazzy ‘Tenerife 1994’ you can hear a tribute to one of Fred’s greatest heroes in music: Pharoah Sanders, while on ‘My Heart Is On The Edge’ and ‘Summer of Love’ euphoria boils over and directs your mind towards the summer raves which Fredfades is known to throw in Oslo. On the back of the LP cover Fredfades is posing with a Korg Wavestation in front of the block where he grew up in the suburbs outside Oslo, while the front cover dons an airbrushed illustration of Caviar from sturgeon - ‘From block to Beluga’. The black vinyl contains magic grooves created by an electronic musical convertite, with the power to transport the listener from perpetual winter to the 90s warm dance floors and the 'Second Summer of Love’.