Why complicate your life when everything you need is around you? That's pretty much the approach adopted by Andreas Bertilsson, a young Swedish musician, who has just released his first album, Face Takes Shape, on Malmö's premier label Komplott. Face Takes Shape is entirely built arounds sounds recorded by Bertilsson in his own house, which he later processes beyond recognition to form intricate sonic structures. A proud owner of a master degree in fine arts, the Berlin-based sound artist first got noticed on Komplott's excellent Starfield Simulation series released over the last couple of years, with a selection of enigmatic tracks evoking the sonic approach of Oval or Fennesz in many ways. Building on these soundscapes, Face takes Shape turns ordinary particles of life into stellar constructions articulated around a backbone of impeccable drones. The rattle that opens this album is symptomatic of the underlying effervescence of Bertilsson's compositions. Far below the clouds of textures covering the surface, the listener can just perceive the hectic agitation happening at microscopic level. Bertilsson's compositions appear calm and slow moving, but it is pure illusion. If New Garden is a rather upfront formation of organic and vivid percussive elements wrestling with a Pole-esque dub and the glitch effects of NoteBook evokes Autechre at their most subdued, the majority of the tracks here seldom expose themselves so openly. Everything happens at sub level, drawing the listener in Bertilsson's atmospheric wanderings, obliterating the very elements of reality his music feeds on. The delicate arabesques of Bed On My Back, Back Pages Of Mine or Two Polar Sleds distract from the overactive backgrounds for a moment to expand on Bertilsson's laidback and peaceful persona, providing a welcome break in the city-like activity experienced in other tracks. Sometimes bringing a bandoneon into the equation to underline a soft-spoken melodic line, the Son Of Clay sonic realm remains firmly stuck between impressionist electronica and post-modern electro-acoustic, demarking Bertilsson from the majority of the current electonic scene. With such an approach, it would be easy to loose sight of the emotional content of the music, but here again, he manages to retain the focus with constant injections of organic components. Face Takes Shape is a fascinating record in many ways. Building on the constructions of his Starfield Simulation contributions, Andreas Bertilsson manages to present an album that manages to deal with emotions and abstraction in equal ways. A truly stunning debut.