Dag Rosenqvist knows damn well how to create music, thank you very much. He understands the necessity of achingly long pauses. He sees the intricacies in an unbearably quiet guitar arpeggio, one so silent and bleak that it almost seems invasive to listen to it. He believes wholeheartedly in the beauty and delicious potential that can be found in a single chord, and the juxtapositon that can make a song simultaneously melancholy and unremittingly hopeful. And with Closet Ghosts, a slight creature with a twenty minute running time, he’s managed to craft a work of precise delicateness.

But he’s not going to allow you to wallow in its charms with ease. Collection opener “I’m Asleep On The Floor While Sunbeams Grace My Tired Head” hides a tender melody behind an abrasive electronic dirge, almost willing the listener to skip on, or the flakiest of post-rock travelers to simply give up and move on to the next release. It’s an admirable stance, one designed to weed out the weak. By track two only the willing will remain, and an aural treat is their reward. “Gone, Away…” ditches Jasper TX’s traditional electronic backdrop entirely, instead focusing on pastoral acoustics that weave a gorgeous folky lament.

Nestled in middle of the EP is the astounding “And When We Die, God Makes Angels of Us All”, a breathtaking exercise in intricacy. The introduction is as cold and forbidding as the harshest Swedish winter, slowly and expertly layered with warm guitar and shimmering instrumentation. For me, it’s the kind of song that transcends genre, an affecting and moving wonder that showcases Rosenqvist’s talents as a songwriter, and the high watermark of an excellent collection.

Undoubtedly a prolific artist, with a steady stream of releases under his Jasper TX guise as well as his work in the acclaimed de la Mancha, Rosenqvist’s quality control remains nevertheless admirably high. Closet Ghosts offers the slightest of glimpses into his current musical mindset, one where the acoustic guitar is king and where melody is never sacrificed for experimentation. Suffice to say, the promise of a forthcoming full length Singing Stones (to be released on Fangbomb Records in February) and a veritable slew of split EPs and individual tracks that he has planned for 2009 is tantalizing. Here is an artist willfully striding his own musical path, one as haunting as the EP title would suggest.

-Peter Brennan