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This is the debut release by Hearts No Static -- a trio based in Stockholm. After only a few sessions of improvisation John Roger Olsson, Jens Pettersson, and Otto Johansson started recording Motif in their own studio in January 2009. The album is notably consistent -- a sign of the musical harmony between the members of the band, from the opening track, the slow and effect-pedal-drenched "Lowlands," to the massive, distorted title track. Equal parts ambient, Kraut and drone shapes the sound, and the broad variety in continuous throughout the record. Because all three musicians are members of other bands as well, they consider Hearts No Static to be the creative workshop for all of their ideas not appropriate for other projects. The trio has created their own Swedish way of painting with sound that belongs to the first decade of the new millennium. These are pictures of deep forests, dark seas, and stirring coastal scenery forming in the mind's eye. Then there are those recurring outbursts, the energetic but sagging drums, and the wall of sound that shakes you up. And then there is the silence, which is shortly followed by no silence at all. A motorik rhythm pushes you forward. But no matter how calm, loud, sluggish or propelling their music is, there is a special, majestic melancholy that lies within that is brilliant and profound. Hearts No Static rely on analog equipment. Besides various guitars (and a lot of effect pedals), bass and drums, they use vibraphone, reed organ, Fender Rhodes, piano, and trumpet, etc. This sound is plaintive and complex, but it's never crowded. The gap between ambient music and Krautrock couldn't have been filled better.