Yule, by Tor Lundvall

Yule

by Tor Lundvall

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CrimsonEulogy92 This beautiful album entered my life around 2011 and ever since it’s been entering my listening rotation when December rolls around and the holiday that also marks my birth approaches. It’s such a cozy listen in headphones or on my or my best friend’s sounsystems with morning coffee, so meditative and soothing. This is what I think of when I think of Christmas music. The intimate, hushed and huddled warmth of those close to you amid the swirling cold. Favorite track: Snowy Morning.

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Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
PREORDER - Shipping November 13th. Purchase includes instant grat digital.

Includes unlimited streaming of Yule via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 3 days

edition of 600

Purchasable with gift card

$24.99 USD or more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
PREORDER - Shipping November 13th. Purchase includes instant grat digital.

Includes unlimited streaming of Yule via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 3 days

Purchasable with gift card

$22.99 USD or more

1.	Busy Station 03:20		buy track
2.	The Train Home 03:10		buy track
3.	Christmas Eve 03:19	lyrics	buy track
A young girl stands, late at night In the glow of Christmas lights Staring back at the moon Candle light fills her room As she sleeps, angels pray Under stars, far away
4.	12:00 AM 02:19		buy track
5.	Snowy Morning 02:15		buy track
6.	Yule Song 03:21	lyrics	buy track
Glowing trees buried in the snow The town is silent on the streets below The town is empty, silence all around Nothing this day could bring us down The feeling changes when the day is done Laughter fading with the winter sun
7.	Fading Light 02:01		buy track
8.	January 03:33	lyrics	buy track
Lonely lights hang from trees Darkness falls early now The city’s tired, pinkish glow Follows softly through the snow Tuesday’s rain melts the snow Freezing over on the road Watching people board the train Passing blindly through the rain
9.	White On Grey 03:22		buy track
10.	The Falling Snow (Full Length Version) 20:20		buy track

about

New York artist Tor Lundvall's music often evokes a sense of soft-focus autumnal melancholia but nowhere is this atmosphere more explicit and evocative than his self-released 2006 holiday album, Yule, newly reissued by Dais Records. Inspired by childhood memories of “cold, dark evenings” waiting for his mother outside shops and supermarkets while seasonal songs drifted faintly on the frozen air, the collection feels appropriately hushed and hypnagogic, half-remembered melodies heard through falling snow.

Steady muted rhythmic pulses wind through wintry landscapes of icy synthetic textures, glass bells, and distant metallic echoes, occasionally framed by Lundvall's soft, dazed vocals, narrating scenes of “slushy, illuminated train stations” and “the lonely trees of January, still entangled with blue lights long after the season has ended.” It's a music of barren branches, crescent moons, and willowy figures shuffling and shivering on their way somewhere, viewed from a fogged window passing by, or high above.

As with Lundvall's signature oil paintings, Yule's sonic vignettes are works of observation, poetic glimpses rendered in gradients of color and quiet. He has referred to his music in the past as “ghost ambient” and, although his songwriting here skews more foreground than background, the phrase aptly captures the haunted, half-light quality of these fragile tracks. 10 miniatures of wreathed streets and silent woods, of twinkling store windows seen from a distance, the sensation of being outside of life looking in – the sentiments that seeded Lundvall's vision remain undimmed: “There was a special melancholic beauty about these moments that has never left me.”

Originally released as a limited CD edition of 333 hand-numbered copies on Strange Fortune in 2006 (SF4). Reissed to vinyl in 2020 by Dais Records (DAIS159).

ARTIST STATEMENT:

I find that the time period following Thanksgiving through early January carries a unique mood to it other than the hustle and bustle of Holiday madness. I remember those cold, dark evenings from my childhood, waiting for hours in the car while my mother was shopping. I'd listen to the songs of the Season drifting and echoing faintly through the parking lots of department stores and supermarkets. The blurred, distant music was far more appealing than Christmas Carols shouted at close range. There was a special, melancholic beauty about these moments that has never left me.

With a handful of recordings, I've attempted to capture another side of the Holiday Season. The settings range from slushy, illuminated train stations, to the lonely trees of January, still entangled with blue lights long after the Season has ended.

As a bonus, this EP also includes the full length version of 'The Falling Snow' which was previously only available in a much shorter, remixed form on the Cynfeirdd compilation "Eisteddfod".

Tor Lundvall
November 11th, 2006
(Amended March 2018)

credits

released December 1, 2006

Recorded between November and December 2004 except "The Falling Snow" recorded on the night of January 24th, 1998.

Artwork and Design by Tor Lundvall.

Mastered by Kurt Lundvall.

© Tor Lundvall, Eternal Autumn Editions (ASCAP).

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about

Tor Lundvall New York, New York

American painter and composer on Dais Records.

torlundvall.com

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