Mono is a cool venue in a basement¹ in the city center. They sell vinyls and light beer, and host a good slew of performances. This time, we walked down there to see Sagor & Swing, a two-man ensemble reminiscent of psych heroes Hansson & Karlsson.

The place is a bit crowded and we get there a little late. From my seat close to the bar, i can't see the drummer, they're around a corner. I do however get a face-on view of the keyboardist.

I drew him...

He has a nice cap with the coop/domus infinity mark and a skull. I think that's their label?

And they start to play

It's a wistful, homely sort of vibe. The hollow organ sound, the minor scales, i see a dark and overgrown night. Dark rooty swamp, monstera leaves, safety. But above, the expanding starry sky, and a single glowing pulsewave laser, delivering a lament on top. This shimmering thread, traversing the landscape.

There's no lyrics, or really any step away from the formula once established. Basslines and chord progressions are quite safe. The flair and tension comes from the percussion and the lead melody. It suits the genre, but after sipping my beer for half an hour i do get a bit bored.

I should be clear now that this is their first album, from long ago. They exited by playing one of their newer tunes, a fresh high-energy polska! That's more my style.

Organ sounds

Also, yeah! The keyboardist said he had meticulously sampled the church organ in Övertorneå and that this actually was the sounds he was using during the performance. I suppose for the hammond-sounding parts, right hand etc, and not the angelic pulsewave...