Way back in 2022 we were all still dealing with post-Covid heebie jeebies; slowly peeking our heads out the windows and doors we sheltered-in-place behind for the past two years. We clung to what we knew; food, books, films, and music hoping escapism into art would somehow bring us some kind of solace.
One of those musical escapes was the newly-formed trio Edena Gardens. The Danish collective consisted of Jakob Skøtt (Causa Sui) on drums, Nicklas Sørensen(Papir) on guitar, and Martin Rude(London Odense Ensemble) on baritone guitar & bass. These three were no strangers to expansive, long form jams and widescreen musical landscapes. Each brought a cache of musical wizardry and creativity for miles.
The sound of Edena Gardens was a like a slow motion roll through some post-apocalyptic western expanse; a blues/doom chug that was equal parts Earth, William Tyler, and Sabbath on quaaludes. Throw in some cosmic dust-laced Frank Frazetta artwork and you’re getting close. Or, if Ry Cooder had locked into psychedelics and science fiction, his dusty, jangly genius might have sounded more like Edena Gardens; more Tarkovsky’s Stalker than Wender’s Paris, Texas.
The band locked in and released their debut in 2022, followed by Agar, Live Momentum, and Dens in 2023. Four albums in 2 years, and each distinct and pushing their gauzy, blues/doom to new heights. And with Live Momentum the trio of Skøtt, Sørensen, and Rude proved they can pull off their widescreen sound on a stage beautifully. It seemed that maybe with each of them and their respective projects outside Edena Gardens would put this musical monolith on ice for some time.
Well, it’s now 2025 and we’re all still looking down the barrel of world chaos and anxiety-ridden news crawls, but Edena Gardens once again formed like some post-rock, blues-leaning musical Voltron and have left us a gift in the form of Dispossessed. Recording at Causa Sui’s Jonas Munk’s recording studio back in February this year, the band improvised recorded some improvised sessions. Then went back and edited the jams into leaner cuts that form Dispossessed.
First single “Fills The Well” finds the band in an almost breezy, summertime blues. Gone are the cavernous, minor key epics and instead there’s an almost hopefulness that lingers in the air. Sorensen shines here as he lays out an almost Tom Verlaine-esque guitar solo. He gives it all a feeling that it could fall apart at any minute, but keeps it all together by painting in musical colors with guitar feedback abstractions and soulful lines. Of course Skøtt and Rude hold down the proceedings with a swinging, solid rhythm section.
We may be out of the pandemic, but we’re still treading water as a world. But that one thing that can change a perspective or offer some kind of creative, spiritual solace is music. Edena Gardens is giving us a lifeline in the form of Dispossessed.
Listen to “Fills The Well” below, then head over to El Paraiso Records and preorder Edena Gardens’ ‘Dispossessed’, out 8/22.
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