Artist: Joachim Nordwall + Aaron Turner
Title: “Malign Seeds”
Label: Ash International
Formats: Compact Disc in an edition of 200 / Digital
Vinyl edition released by Somafree Institute, USA in a limited edition of 100
Catalogue number: Ash 15.8 / Ash 15.8D
Barcode: 5050580853607 | 5050580853614
Streaming date: 30 January 2026 | Street date: 6th February 2026
Bandcamp order page
About “Malign Seeds”
Joachim Nordwall [iDeal/Alvars Orkester/Kid Commando/Skull Defects…]: synths, drum machine
Aaron Turner [SIGE/SUMAC/Old Man Gloom/ISIS…]: guitar, vocals, electronics
Recorded in Gothenburg, Sweden and Vashon, WA , 2021-2024
Artwork & design by Savage Pencil (extended version on request)
There was no premeditated methodology in place when Swedish electronics manipulator Joachim Nordwall and American guitar mangler Aaron Turner decided to collaborate on an album together. Initial experiments involved Turner submitting improvised guitar compositions to Nordwall for dissection and reassembly. While these exercises yielded interesting returns, the project truly began to bloom when Nordwall pitched several beat-oriented tracks for Turner’s perusal. Beginning from a place of structure and finding ways to corrode and disrupt the patterns proved to be a more satisfying tactic than molding chaos into something resembling cohesive form. And it was from this approach that Turner-Norwall’s Malign Seeds album took shape.
Whether the xenomorphic sounds of Turner-Nordwall’s Malign Seeds represent the grisly meat or the scraped-out husk of the 21st century’s niche permutations of rock music is ultimately an exercise in language. Perhaps it’s the most basic incarnation of living matter—primordial cells embedded with the code for a more sophisticated manifestation. Perhaps it really is just a shell—the hardiest and most resilient elements of something that is ultimately fallible and prone to decay. Or perhaps the answer is in the name of the album itself—a kernel containing multitudes for anyone patient enough to give it time to grow, or anyone brave enough to face the potentially malevolent force nestled within.
The album continues to be laden with pronounced purpose but bereft of the kind of cultural sonic shorthand that immediately informs the listener of what they should be feeling. This isn’t just music stripped naked, this is music where everything but the marrow of the bones has been excised, leaving the listener with something meaty and very much alive, but left to us to construe its definitive shape. “It’s of constant interest to me to try to capture the feeling of dreams—where something may be familiar and human, but also seemingly conjured from elsewhere and devoid of the comfort that comes with familiarity,” Turner explains. “That was very much a part of the intention in terms of what the music should be and feel like when complete—made by humans, but not warmly human music, neither accessible nor logical in the context of our daily lives.”
Whether the xenomorphic sounds of Turner-Nordwall’s Malign Seeds represent the grisly meat or the scraped-out husk of the 21st century’s niche permutations of rock music is ultimately an exercise in language. Perhaps it’s the most basic incarnation of living matter—primordial cells embedded with the code for a more sophisticated manifestation. Perhaps it really is just a shell—the hardiest and most resilient elements of something that is ultimately fallible and prone to decay. Or perhaps the answer is in the name of the album itself—a kernel containing multitudes for anyone patient enough to give it time to grow, or anyone brave enough to face the potentially malevolent force nestled within.