vänbloggen: C-J Larsgården (article + interview)

CJ and me met for the first time back in 1998 when we studied together. He did an interview with me some years later for his fanzine Salvador where he told that he hated my music back then.

Now we have a band together, A Perfect Friend. We formed it early 2006 and have released one selftitled album (STILLL, 2007) the EP Graduation Day (self released, 2008) and we've almost finished our second forthcoming album Timber and Modern Ways which is going to be released later this year.

He runs and/or is part of a number of projects, currently he's most active as the moniker Ondo, with music best placed in the drone/doom-genre with elements of electronica and indie. The British label Paradigms is just about to release the excellent debut album Mahavishnu. But that's not all, as Ondo he also recently released the split-3" with Austrasian Goat (Burning Emptiness, 2007), The Mini album Alliansen (200mg records, 2008), a split cd with The Machinist (self released, 2008) and soon a new 3" Shields (Tuguska, 2008). More info about his songs, and excerpts from his still unreleased second Ondo album, This is the new era, are available at his myspace profile. CJs other solo project Pacta can be found here.

Thomas: First, could you briefly describe your recent and current projects (solo and collaborations).

CJ: I have a lot of projects and collaborations going on. My solo project Pacta can be described as some kind of electro acoustic music mixed with “post rock” and folk influences. Pacta is my pet project and I have a lot of material recorded. Time will tell if it will be released in some form. My other solo project is called Ondo. It is about distortion and drones. A Perfect Friend is an ongoing collaboration with a Swedish artist called Thomas Jonsson (a.k.a. Dödsboet, maybe you have heard of him?). I have collaborated with German audio maestro Frank Rowenta. I also play guitar in a yet to be named band who play more “traditional” rock….

T: About the end of February you have released 4 single releases this year with your doom/drone-project ONDO plus one with APF. With this pace you will have out 30 cds at the end of the year. What are your creative plans for the nearest future?

C: Yeah, February has been a quite hectic month for Ondo. But, I must say it wasn’t planned. The debut album has been rescheduled a few times and now it finally will be available. I think Paradigms Recordings who will release it has put out some great artists (like Gnaw their Tongues, Jarboe and Angelic Process) so I’m very excited about working with them.

After all the upcoming Ondo releases I don’t have any planned releases. Me and Frank Rowenta will try to release the recordings we did during 2006. We have material for a fullength album but have not found a label yet. I’m very pleased with our recordings and I really hope we can make them public in some form soon.

I have started a micro label called Tuguska Label who will release 3” CDs in limited editions. The first release is Ondo now in February and I have some future releases planned in mind. I don’t have any clear musical profile set for the label but I guess it most likely will set focus on any sort of “experimental” music. Next release will be a 3” with Frank Rowenta.

And, of course, A Perfect Friend has recorded its second album. I hope itwill be released during 2008.

T: I've understanded that you were somewhat of a "mute" artist earlier, very hard or impossible to lure to the microphone. Now, you're a credited vocalist on all 3 APF-cds (The album, the EP and the forthcoming second album) we've made and you're also often doing your voice heard on the ONDO-cds. What happened and what is to expect next?

C: My vocal contribution in APF is very, very limited so I don’t really think it counts. I think I will continue to do some vocals on the Ondo stuff but it will never be structured lyrics or something like that. In Ondo I use my vocals as an instrument.

T: In A Perfect Friend, you're producer, engineer, sampler, beat programmer, musician, vocalist, back projection maker and responsible for our graphic profile. What's my part of it?

C: I think we equally contribute as musicians and producers in APF. And I don’t think I am a vocalist in APF (that’s your job). In APF you are a producer, musician, vocalist, lyricist etc. I guess you work more with promotion than I do which is a good thing since you are “godo” and I am “ondo”…