Ola Sandberg is a Swedish producer based in Malmö — a multi-instrumentalist with a Master’s degree from the Royal College of Music in Stockholm and a deep love for sound. As well as sound installations, film scores and collaborations (making up one half of Den Osynliga Manteln), Ola has an ongoing solo project called Osynliga Rum, or Invisible Room, which is also the title of the first record coming out of this project. Invisible Room circles around the idea of using music-making and sound to explore the audible qualities of architecture while also using architecture to explore sound and having it guide and shape the music being made. Sandberg was influenced and inspired by, to name a few, Paul Horn’s sonic experiments in both Inside the Taj Mahal and Inside the Great Pyramid, Pauline Olivero playing in a vast underground silo in Deep Listening, and Alvin Lucier’s acoustic explorations in I Am Sitting in a Room.
Invisible Room was created and recorded in St John’s Church in Malmö during March of 2021 using a modular, analogue synthesiser, speakers and microphones. Building on the premise that the essence of a room, the space it holds, is invisible but audible — the music was created to explore and activate the sonic aspects of the room, aiming for a non-hierarchical relationship between room and sound. Many nights were spent alone in this church, and over eight hours of music was created and recorded.