Joakim: 'Monsters And Silly Songs'

Joakim is an artist who has come at music from an increasingly unconventional classical background. Training with Abdel Rahman El Bacha to be a pianist, his route to experimental music was through the synthesizer and doesn’t appear to have been influenced by a desire to become a particular kind of musician. This album, his second, is astonishing in its diversity. Broadly it might be conceived as Post-Rock, but only in the sense that that genre is an open church. If this is born out of perversity - he has said that if he were to be pigeonholed he would have to veer into a different style entirely - then it is probably a positive influence.

'Monsters And Silly Songs' is a majestic experimental foray into the possibilities of any number of styles, and Joakim sounds utterly at ease with them all. From the beautiful dovetailing blips of 'Three Legged Lantern' to the asphalt grime of 'Lonely Hearts', this album brilliantly proves that to push back genres you have to pretty much ignore them.

Released 19th February 2007 by Versatile.

Written by Huw Green.