Jonas Rosén – Grief Manual LP (cassette)

Recorded during the winter of 2025/2026 at Studio Djupvik, Grief Manual is a exploration of loss and mourning. It is the first album released under Jonas Rosén’s own name, and the first time he places the guitar at the center—using it as a way to work through the weight, repetition, and quiet intensity of grief.

The music draws on the repetative, textural approaches of Robert Fripp and Brian Eno, alongside the more abrasive and uncompromising sounds associated with Richard Pinhas and Merzbow. There is also a clear connection to Swedish instrumental prog—particularly Älgarnas Trädgård—in the way the music prioritizes space, atmosphere, and gradual development but still in fixed structures. No loops or loop pedals were used in this recording; all repetition was performed live in the studio.

Approaching fifty, Rosén has lost more friends and loved ones in recent years than in all the years before combined. With age, grief arrive more often—yet we are rarely prepared for it. While birth is surrounded by structure, guidance, and expectation, death and mourning are often left more or less unspoken.

Grief Manual does not try to explain or resolve grief. Instead, it offers a space to stay with it—a form of presence rather than an answer. In that sense, the album became, for Rosén, something like a single page from a manual that doesn’t exist.