In two recent Fever Ray videos to promote a new album of reworked material and a forthcoming accompanying book, several of their strangest characters come together for a therapy session. Here, the therapist who treated them* shares some insights on these troubled figures

(L-R) Ebba, Romance, and Fever Ray. Photo by Nina Andersson

“I lost my head a while ago,” sings Fever Ray – the alias of Swedish experimentalist and former The Knife vocalist Karin Dreijer – in the video for ‘I’m Not Done (Therapy Session)’. 

Or, is the speaker actually one of Dreijer’s other personas? Several of the artist’s characters, which they played in previous videos for their astonishing 2023 album Radical Romantics, are here shown singing in unison – gathered together…

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Rory Kiberd looks back at an implacable and unforgiving film that has only become more relevant over the last two decades. Contains spoilers for Caché and plot information from various Haneke films plus The Act Of Killing, Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind and The Zone Of Interest. CW: discussion of suicide and atrocity

The goal of psychoanalysis, argues Adam Phillips, is to become boring to yourself. It is “the therapy that frees people to lose interest in themselves; there’s nothing more self-preoccupying than a symptom, nothing finally less interesting than one’s self”. Becoming less self-interested may depend on forgetting, but repression isn’t forgetting – it only preserves detested memories for later. True forgetting – freedom from haunting memories – comes…

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source https://thequietus.com/opinion-and-essays/anniversary/michael-haneke-cache-review-anniversary/

Marta Forsberg

Archaeology of Intimacy

A quiet but often surprising suite of songs from the Berlin-based singer demand your close attention, finds Richard Foster

Archaeology of Intimacy by Marta Forsberg

Marta Forsberg’s new record Archaeology of Intimacy is something of a surprise. Things are kept short and simple, and sometimes ever so slightly sharp. Forsberg’s languorous, quietly investigative style is now attuned to a trickier yet still seductive line of attack.

The listener’s relationship with Archaeology of Intimacy soon becomes very clear: we are here to be still, and actively listen to these quiet but often surprising songs. This injunction is not a bad thing – a lot of what makes this album so moreish is only revealed with patience and attention. Archaeology of Intimacy…

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source https://thequietus.com/quietus-reviews/marta-forsberg-archaeology-of-intimacy/

Cerys Hafana

Angel

Cerys Hafana reinvigorates traditional Welsh melodies on the triple harp, with the help of Amie Huckstep on saxophone, Ursula Harrison on double bass and Lisa Martin on percussion

Angel by Cerys Hafana

The harp stands out for its dignity, unique construction and rarity. Unlike more common instruments such as the violin, guitar or piano, the harp is difficult to acquire and transport and requires dedication to play. What truly distinguishes it is how the sound is produced: on a piano, hammers strike strings; on a violin, a bow is drawn. For the harp, the musician directly plucks the strings with both hands, and each note’s tone and character depend on position, technique and force.

The triple harp introduces added complexity to the…

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source https://thequietus.com/quietus-reviews/cerys-hafana-angel/

A newly introduced “spam filter” will target “mass uploads, duplicates, SEO hacks, artificially short track abuse, and other forms of slop”

Spotify says it has removed 75 million AI-generated tracks from its platform over the past year in a bid to crackdown on people fraudulently gaming its payout system.

The streaming giant has pledged to strengthen its AI protections for artists, songwriters and producers, and is introducing a new “spam filter” to target “mass uploads, duplicates, SEO hacks, artificially short track abuse, and other forms of slop”. The company has also acknowledged that its existing measures for combatting spam uploads have “become easier to exploit as AI tools make it simpler for anyone to generate large volumes of music.”

In a statement, the platform…

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The organisation believes the events giant is stifling competition and undermining independent promoters

The Association of Independent Festivals (AIF) has formally called for the breakup of Live Nation Entertainment.

The not-for-profit organisation expressed the view in a post shared on Instagram last week, which argued that the events giant’s combined market power was stifling competition and undermining smaller, independent promoters.

“Our data showed that Live Nation and affiliated companies control the majority of arena, stadium and outdoor concert tickets in 2025,” the AIF’s post read. “The UK monopoly threshold is 25 percent. Market dominance position is 40 percent. Live Nation control 66.4 percent.”

The post also used a case study of September’s events listings at Manchester venue Co-Op Live, revealing that 75 percent of…

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The Chicago DJ’s contribution to the long-running series is out in November

Screenshot

Eris Drew will oversee the next instalment of !K7’s DJ-Kicks mix series.

The 20-track set collects “the funky, emotional, ecstatic house-and-breaks backbone that defines my sound”, the Chicago DJ and producer said in a statement. It features music by Moby, Callisto, Octo Octa and Drew herself, who contributes two new productions.

She recorded the mix on two turntables and a mixer at her home studio in rural New Hampshire. “”I recorded it in my cabin with the violent world rolling around me,” she said. “Being in my refuge in the forest was important; the mix needed to carry the feeling of that place and the inspiration I draw from it. I…

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source https://thequietus.com/news/eris-drew-enlisted-for-next-dj-kicks-mix-compilation/

Dan Hancox, who interviewed the elusive artist for The Guardian, has shared the full transcript via his newsletter

The full transcript from Burial’s last interview to date has been released for the first time.

Writer Dan Hancox, who did the interview for The Guardian, shared the full 3,000-word version via his Honor Oak Riot newsletter this week. The conversation took place in 2007 just three weeks before of the release of the elusive producer’s seminal second album, Untrue.

Writing in his newsletter, Hancox said he agreed to meet the artist, real name Will Bevan, at Balham Station in South London. Bevan wore a bright red jacket “for identification purposes” as Hancox didn’t know what he looked like. After meeting, they did the interview at Hancox’s flat in…

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The rare 1998 collaborative album will be new released on vinyl, CD and streaming platforms

Photo by Gail O’Hara

Yo La Tengo’s 1998 collaborative album with Jad Fair, Strange But True, is being reissued.

The album has been out-of-print for decades, and will now be given a new release in vinyl and CD editions, while it will also be available on streaming platforms for the first time. Listen to ‘Texas Man Abducted By Aliens for Outer Space Joyride’ from the album below.

The songs on Strange but True are named after headlines from the US tabloid Weekly World News, which were gathered by David Fair, Jad Fair’s brother and bandmate in Half Japanese. “When I started as a musician, I just wanted to sound like myself,” Fair…

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The Icelandic artist has joined the 400-plus artists and labels supporting the No Music For Genocide campaign

Björk has thrown her support behind the No Music For Genocide initiative, which encourages artists and record labels to geo-block their back catalogues from being accessed via streaming platforms in Israel.

The campaign was initially launched last month, with more than 400 artists and record labels signing up to support the initiative upon its launch. Björk hasn’t issued a statement outlining her support for the initiative, but her name is now listed among the other artists who support it, which also includes Massive Attack, Kelela, Loraine James, Arca and many more.

Björk previously spoke out on Israel’s occupation of Palestine in November 2023, when she posted an image on…

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source https://thequietus.com/news/bjork-joins-israel-streaming-boycott/