Forss is an electronic musician from Sweden. He has recently released an album and app for ipad/iphone based round 'church music'.

You can read an interesting article about it here:

http://thequietus.com/articles/09085-forss-ecclesia-interview

And buy the album/app here:

http://forssmusic.com/dictum

Its wonderful stuff - a little like if Burial had been made to join a church choir at a young age (who's to say he wasn't). It also threw up some interesting points for me. In the quietus interview above Forss (Eric Wahlforss) claims that he is not religious but has since child hood had a connection to the church and holds a deep seated love for 'church music'.

The concept of not being explicitly religious but feeling attached to such an important element of worship is one that resonates with me. I was bought up with a strong but liberal religious influence - both my parents work in the church and are ordained. From a relatively early age I was encouraged to make my own decisions about the church and religion. Today I would not call myself a Christian but I have a theological hunger and a willingness and openness to thinking about God.

I completely understand where Forss is coming from in terms of the atmosphere of a religious building. Architecturally they are stunning and hold a unique peace . On the odd occasion that I look round a city cathedral I am very happy to simple just be in the space. Many of the beats on Forss' album are made from the physicality of a church - stones, wood etc. Capturing this atmosphere by literally playing the church is a fantastic approach.

I find this artistic connection to the physicality, feeling and music of the church fascinating and in turn, it highlights for me a worrying trend in how the modern media encourages us to view the Church. Many feel we are living in a post religion age - the rise of western atheism in the 21st century has been unstoppable and difficult to ignore - in Britians secular society it is difficult to feel that it has not become the norm. I would worry that there is a very real danger that this momentum will mean throwing out the baby with the bath water.

Although we seem, in some areas, to have developed a healthy cynicism about the media - religion and the church appear to not have been granted this same pinch of salt. In short, the over simplistic and heavily socio-political element of the Church comes under easy fire and scorn from both media and consumers of media. The danger here is that a false dichotomy is created between dogma and spirituality - this is certainly a trap that Dawkins falls into. He attacks a child like and overtly dogmatic notion of a deity, and with his attack conveniently eradicates all spirituality. As though the entire church is founded on fundamentalism and unmoving, dogmatic thinking. This is certainly not my experience of a large amount of religious people I have met - both Christian and other.

I am being overly general and to a degree playing devils advocate but on an empirical level I have witnessed this dismissive attitude in a lot of my friends - usually accompanied by a sharp and acidic cynicism about anything religious. This is not an article defending religion - nor am I about to lower myself to Dawkins' level of theology (his God, of course does not exist, it is the God of a child like thought and comes from a man with a deeply distorted sense of spirituality). What the Forss album highlights for me is the potential for a redefined relationship with the Church though art, in which God is not a bearded interventionist in the sky but a relational projection of ourselves that we must aspire to in order to spiritually grow. There is value in Theology and the deeply personal and emotional basis for Forss' work seems to be one way in which we can enter into a dialogue with the Church and spirituality in a  healthy and open way.