REQIUEM

Five years ago my friend, and my brothers best friend, Martin Erlandsson lost his battle to cancer. The times I spent with Martin means a lot to me and inspires what I do, both musically and with Has it Leaked. I know we’ve got a diverse audience  here at Has it Leaked but all I can say is that the indie, experimental, downtempo, instrumental hiphop, symphonic and the electronic part of our community might find something to connect to in our mixtape from 2007.

This is me and Martins Requiem mixtape. And while we usually have a strict policy not to provide downloads, I really want to share this to you, my loving community. The following is Martin’s own words;

To really understand and appreciate harmony and happiness in life it is necessary that you’ve also experienced disharmony and met misfortune, or at least seen misfortune closely enough to really understand that it exist.

At the end of January I received news that the skeletal cancer I had been treated for a year earlier, now had spread throughout my skeleton, that there was no known cure and that it was so far gone that both radiation and operation were out ruled. Since then I’ve undergone severe treatment using chemotherapy that weaken my body at a tremendous rate.

During this time period contrasts were prominent in my life.
Overwhelming panic was followed by immense calm, loneliness was followed by feelings of presence and love in the company of friends and relatives.

This is what Staffan and I tried working with in our music – letting the listener experience disharmony, thus enhancing the inherent beauty of the strings and harmonies.
Requiem may seem a pretentious title, but while we were working with the mix I thought I only had a couple or months left to live.
He who lives shall see how right I was…

/Martin Erlandsson

Download as an MP3 here.

And it would really mean a lot if you share this mixtape with others. Thank you.

– Staffan Ulmert