crescenscollective

Crescens Collective is a platform for various artists, projects and collaborations with focus on exploring the different fields of expressing within art. It was founded by Jan Carleklev as a result of the joy and possibilities that lie within working with other people, meant to get a certain continuity when everything seems to constantly change. Creating means in one way to always keep moving; new ideas and situations arise while others are put aside. There is no mission statement existing, but similarities like the aim to express and communicate, the goal to be ambitious and work hard to reach a certain quality are intended.

It was never planned or encouraged to put an emphasis on music, but it happened a little bit out of the situation. But there are examples and hopefully many more will follow for more interdisciplinary collaborations. For example the work with the video artist Ulrika Carlsson, who nowadays participates in all performances of Sanctum and Mago and turns the concerts to more-dimensional happenings on stage.

Sanctum

With the aim to have a more experimental approach than in their early work and also emphasizing the emotional aspect of their music, still in the field of electronic music, Håkan Paulsson and Jan Carleklev formed Sanctum in 1994. Sanctum was joined by the singer Lena Robért and the cellist Marika Kante, which unfortunately left the band in 2001.In the foreground doesn’t stand the wish to follow any specific genre, but the attraction of combining harsh sounds with the more beautiful and light, accepting the influence classic and modern orchestral music had on them. Since Sanctums first release in 1996 the band has continued working and ongoing performed new material.

Mago

When Mago was started in 1999 the idea of a project that should be kind of beaty, not pure dance music but music with a groove was discussed. On the way the beats got slower, most likely due to the fascination of monotony that overcame jan and resulted in very flowing, emotional music, more electronic orientated compared to their projects before.In the case of the first Mago release definition of raw moments from a different perspective in the end four people were working on the album. Besides Jan Carleklev and Håkan Paulsson, contributions came from Ulrika Carlsson and Stephanie Euler.

Parca Pace

Parca pace is a solo project of Jan. The original idea arose from a photography exhibition. The soundscape, first meant to support the pictures turned into a 50 minute composition. Also it lacks the real comparison to Sanctum, the music of Parca Pace plays with contrasts.

Azure Skies

Azure Skies is a collaboration between Samuel and David Durling of Mental Destruction and Jan Carleklev and Håkan Paulsson of Sanctum. Expressed in an easy way, the music is a result of combing Mental Destruction’s harshness with the melodicness of Sanctum. But in reality the collaboration leads to more varied results rather than just a blending, after it allows all musicians involved to further explore and escape their defined fields.

NovCom

NovCom or The November Commandment was the project with which Andreas Mattsson, Ola Gustavsson, Håkan Paulsson and Jan Carleklev left their basement and went out. With its origins in 1987, the first release ‘Complete Structure’ (tape, of course) came in 1988. Over the years and two more releases later (’dark dawn’ 1991, ‘exile station’ 1993) the music had evolved from early wave and EBM influences, tributes to their heros to laying the foundation for following projects like Sanctum.The appearance on slava compilation finally lead to a full-length cd ‘The Motorised Mind’ in 1999, a re-release of all former recordings and growing recognition outside of their home country Sweden. NovCom ended all activities with a final concert at the Cornerstone festival in 1999.