Karaboudjan (band)

Karaboudjan is an avant-garde metal one-man band from Örebro, Sweden. The only band member is Dan Swanö, who had previously worked with Katatonia and Pan.Thy.Monium (among others) and who is known for being involved in many side projects. Karaboudjan is a band entirely devoted to the Adventures of Tintin, and the atmosphere created by the music reminds of the mysterious aspects of these adventures, especially those of "Flight 714".

"Karaboudjan" is the name of the ship in which Tintin first meets his friend Captain Haddock. The term probably comes from the popular Walloon / Belgian French word "craboudja", meaning "child gross drawing" [Hergé, Tintin's creator, enjoyed melting popular Belgian culture with supposed exotic names; see for example [http://www.zompist.com/syldavian.html] for parallels between Syldavian and Brussels's speech.] . An alternative explanation is that it has been made up by two different terms: Karabou-gaz (a bay in the Caspian Sea) and Azerb-djan (country in Central Asia). This latter explanation has been forwarded in the Tintin exposition of the Marine Museum in Stockholm, Sweden, 2007-2008.

History

Karaboudjan being a one-man band, it never actually went through a "formation". Karaboudjan started in 2001, when Dan Swanö released "Sbrodj" with the help of Relapse Records. Swanö worked with three session musicians on this release, including a saxophonist and a bassist. "Sbrodj"'s release type is sometimes disputed. Some sources claim that it is an EP, since its total playing time is of 18 minutes and 59 seconds, but others claim that the release is a demo because it is Karaboudjan first release. As of 2007, the band seems to be on hold. However, since it is a one-man band, other releases may not be impossible.

Musical genre

Although Karaboudjan is an avant-garde metal band, it incorporates several genres, such as progressive metal, industrial metal, or even zouk, inside its music. In "Den Svarta Ön", for example, the song's introduction is similar to progressive metal in that it uses odd time signatures. Following the introduction, the use of keyboard sounds similar to industrial metal. In the middle of the song comes a section of complete chaos: there is no structure, the drums become more present and arhythmic, and the saxophone and vocals are noisy and atonal. This moment could be compared to noisecore or even grindcore. Immediately after this section of the song, a section with stable, yet unusual, time signature (9/4) comes. The instrumentation of this section is different in that it uses more exotic instruments and the melody sounds more like music from the Caribbean. At one point in "Den Svarta Ön", what sounds like a kettle drum is used instead of toms. Despite all those varied styles, the song (and band for this matter) still shows its roots in heavy metal at certain moments of the song, where a stable 4/4 time signature is established and more guitar-driven riffs are played. Overall, the band's genre is generally considered avant-garde metal due to its great efforts in musical experimentation, both in musical genres and unusual sounds.

Themes

Karaboudjan's themes and lyrics center mostly on The Adventures of Tintin, a Belgian comic book series created by Hergé in the late 1920s [The Adventures of Tintin on Wikipedia] . In the Tintin comic book "The Crab with the Golden Claws", the Karaboudjan is the ship where Tintin first meets Captain Haddock, who will later become one of the major characters of the adventures. [The Crab with the Golden Claws on Wikipedia] The three tracks from "Sbrodj" are titled with Swedish translations of Tintin comic books. "Plan 714 Till Sydney" is the Swedish title for Flight 714, [Flight 714 on the Swedish Wikipedia] "Den Svarta Ön" is the Swedish title for The Black Island, [The Black Island on the Swedish Wikipedia] and "Den Mystiska Stjärnan" is the Swedish title for The Shooting Star. [The Shooting Star on the Swedish Wikipedia] The name of the release, "Sbrodj" is also related to the Tintin comic books. Sbrodj (named Sprodj in the English edition) is the name of the area of Syldavia (a fictional Balkan kingdom) where a secret but successful space program was located in the 1950s. [Sbrodj on the Swedish Wikipedia] [Syldavia on the Swedish Wikipedia] [Sylavian history on Wikipedia] The names of the session musicians, which are presumably pseudonyms, are also taken from the Adventures of Tintin. Dr. Krollspell is the name of a doctor hired by Rastapopoulos to inject a truth serum to Laszlo Carreidas in order to get his money. This character only appears in "Flight 714". [Flight 714 on Wikipedia] The name Allan, if put into the context of the Tintin comic books, is that of Allan Thompson. However, when translating the comic book from French to English, the name was shortened down to Allan in order to avoid confusion with Thomson and Thompson. [Allan Thompson on Wikipedia] Serafim Svensson is the name of Jolyon Wagg in the Swedish translations of the comic books. [ [http://www.tintinologist.org/guides/characters/w.html Tintin Characters Guide:W] ] It must also be noted that the intro of "Plan 714 Till Sydney" consists of what sounds like an announcement in an airport saying (in Swedish): "the passengers of flight 714 in destination to Sydney should present themselves to gate number three". Those lines are the opening lines for the comic book Flight 714. The lines are taken from the Swedish cassettes of the adventures made in the 1980s.

Line-up

Band members

*Dan Swanö (all instruments)

Session musicians

*Dr Krollspell (rhythm bass)
*Allan (lead guitars)
*Serafim Svensson (saxophone):"Note: These names are actually taken from the Swedish edition of the Tintin books, as well, (Serafim Svensson is the Swedish name of Jolyon Wagg,) and it is possible that the session musicians are simply other names used by Dan Swanö."

Discography

"Sbrodj"

"Sbrodj" was the first Karaboudjan release. Some sources claim that it is an EP due to its relatively long playing time, while others think that the term demo is more appropriate for this release. "Sbrodj" was released in 2001 with Relapse Records. It includes three tracks. The line-up for this release was Dan Swanö on all instruments, Dr Krollspell on rhythm bass, Allan on lead guitars, and Serafim Svensson on the saxophone.

:Track listing:

:1. "Plan 714 Till Sydney" - 5:04:2. "Den Svarta Ön" - 7:32:3. "Den Mystiska Stjärnan" - 6:23

References

External links

* [http://www.bnrmetal.com/groups/kara.htm Karaboudjan at BNRmetal]
* [http://rockdetector.com/artist,34273.sm Karaboudjan] at Rockdetector