Though active for roughly half a decade, instrumental hypno-kosmische duo Skeppet (Swedish for "Vessel" or "Ship") have only released two cassette EPs, one 7-inch and one split LP--each more spacious and weightless than the last--all on local labels in Sweden. Even so, their mantric ceremonial psychedelia hooked the minds behind Not Not Fun immediately, delivering on the title of a 2010 compilation curated by core members Andreas Malm and Henrik Wallin for their own Kosmisk Väg imprint: The New Wave of Swedish Cosmic Music. For Phase 3, the group's first full-length, they drafted Upper Layer Cruiser Martin Nilsson to play additional percussion, infusing a texture of mind-washed congas within their futurist Popul Vuh ascension voyages and gracefully opiated raga-rock. The album mimics the journey of a deep-orbiting craft, first spiraling deep into the ether, eclipsed and endless (the 20-minute wormhole "Den Nya Kusten," or "The New Coast"), before arcing back toward the solar wind, increasingly sunbathed and radiant (fittingly kicking off the B-side is "Solskeppet," or "Sun-Ship"). A refined exploration of transportive aerodynamics and escape pod jamming by a sub-radar squadron who've paid their dues in the engine room, Phase 3 was recorded in waves across three years, partially at Skeppet's home studio in Malmö and the rest at TonGeneration Studio with Björn Stegmann.
