Temporary Coexistence of Humans

Temporary Coexistence of Humans is Swedish composer Peter Sandberg’s eighth album, and focuses conceptually on how human beings interact with one another, in often fleeting and unpredictable ways. The opening “Temporary Coexistence” sets a sonic template of solo piano, to a soft backwash of ambient echo. The simple, strangely poignant melody drops like pebbles in a quiet pond, rippling concentrically outward. “Convergence”, with its muted, humming left-hand underlay, has an air of unsettled anticipation about it, and a vein of melancholy more fully mined in the introspective “Bleeding Out”. There are charming character pieces, too, like the sweetly winsome “Mr. Hindsight” and the lightly traipsing, carefree “Molly”. Furling arabesques decorate the melody of “Sommarnatt”, imparting an almost folk-like quality to Sandberg’s playing. The concluding “Momentary”, by contrast, is draped in a halo of misty sonority—the public world, perhaps, receding as the individual slips back into the deeper realm of private imagination.