“The atmosphere of the night was caught somewhere in London, Düsseldorf, Chelmsford and Lund, cities that have been a home on various occasions for San Jua. ‘Laid To Waste’ takes us through the enigmatic rhythms of the night” That is what the Swedish-English duo San Jua write about their debut single. And they certainly manage to capture the ambience and vibe of a resting city, sometime after the last echoes of the nightlife have faded away and before everything wakes up again with the first rays of light. It’s suggestive and you’re alone with your thoughts but still with a comfortable and restful feeling inside of you.

San Jua on Facebook

If you’ve listened to the band YAST then you have heard Marcus Norberg sing before. As an outlet for songs that doesn’t fit into his other projects he has now also launched his own solo project, even though he’s backed up by band members from YAST, Nightmen and Mixtapes & Cellmates. Here he almost digs down into the dark tones of Nick Cave in a country-vibing ballad, which is brightened, though, by the shimmering ambience we recognize from YAST. I hardly wants him to quit his other projects but this definitely made me wish for more.

Marcus Norberg and the Disappointments on Facebook – on Spotify – on Apple Music

Rickard Ahlgren has released his first official EP under the name danmarck. Here he continues with his grand-sounding furious rock he showed us in the Autumn on the single “Mayfire”. The garage is just a memory now as he heads out on the vast plains like a hurricane on the four tracks. He pushes his voice to the limit while melodic, alarming guitar lines sweep in over the soundscape. There’s something very direct and punk-like when he grabs a theme and just hammers on with an intense beat for two-three minutes, but you will also find traces of goth, alternative rock, industrial and other stuff. He writes that he’s found his inspiration to the songs from artists like Arcade Fire, Hurula, The Damned and Nirvana, influences he interweaves with his dark and ominous sound. Every song has its own character and you can listen to all four tracks here below and read his comments to each song:

Danmarck on Facebook – on Spotify – on Apple Music

About “All Hail”: “The lyrics are about various things, partly about the importance of being dedicated to something and partly about our need for a short-circuit of all IT, phones, computers and so on, “All we need is another short circuit”. Musically it’s inspired by Olle Ljungström and Hurula.”

About “Sessala”: “Is there light in here?”. “About our insecurity when we have to choose (not TV:s…:)). Is there anything good with what I’m doing right now..?
Musically inspired by av Thåström, Kite and Nicole Saboune.”

About “Anavia”: “Be who you want to be and be a role model. Do good. Musically inspired by Nirvana’s “Endless Nameless” (hiddden track on Nevermind) and also Nine Inch Nails and Sex Pistols.”

Secret Cameras, hailing from London, are warming up before the release of their debut EP with the second single from the record, “It Doesn’t Matter”. It’s a track that breathes of postpunk and alternative rock and which gives me plenty of Suede vibes. The song is quite intense, culminating in a massive sound explosion in the chorus, still with a sweet melody hook. The first single is also worth checking out. “Going Places” is a bit calmer and with the synths more in the foreground, but with the same dense, ambient sound and an ending where they pour in everything they’ve got.

Secret Cameras’ site – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Apple Music

Today Feivel, aka Elin Hörberg, serves the first taste of her upcoming album “My Mind and the Thunder Sky”, to be released on the 8th of March. The song is called “A Die-Hard Piece”, a song she wrote together with Peter Liddle from the English band Dry the River. It’s a pearl of a pop song which balances between melancholy and uplifting, sheer melodies and between inner turmoil and soothing certainty.

Feivel on Facebook – on Spotify – on Apple Music

In the end of last year she also collaborated with the french producer The Last Port in a remix of her song “Home”. Here her organic sound meets his electronica soundscapes in an interesting blend:

I was actually going to write about the EP “Hollywood”, which I had saved from last year as I didn’t have time then. But suddenly the duo The Red Fuze releases another EP, “Moonlight Drive”, that claims my attention. It’s their fourth EP and an album where they leave their earlier garagerock sound for a sound where they head back to their roots.

Already in the first bars with a funkbluesy guitar lick in the starting track “Let Me Be Your Dog” I feel my foot begin to move with the beat. Then they stock up with a wonderful bluesrock full of life, with organ lines, a great groove and a catchy chorus. “Don’t Call Me Baby” makes me think of both Canned Heat and T.Rex but the highlight of the EP comes later with the title track. Here they serve vibes from The Doors mixed with an exhuberant bluesrock with rock’n’roll-piano in one of the best tracks I’ve heard with the band.

The Red Fuze site – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Apple Music

The trio SaidArtch, Moa McAllister, Judith Stocks and Elenoor Roovers, released their debut single “Cash or Visa” last summer and it’s a song that caught me immediately when I listened, a bluesy, garagerock-sounding track with sweet crunchy guitars and a heavy, driving beat. They followed up with the EP “In the Beginning of Time” in the Autumn and added two new songs, songs that get to breathe in a larger room, have more pop-melodic colours and vocal harmonies. While I didn’t quite get “Always Been Crying” the beautiful “Explode” did and shows that the trio have plenty of brushes to paint with.

SaidArtch på Facebook – på Spotify – på Apple Music

Lovisa Thurfjell knows how to tell someone to fuck off. The latest single “Ha d bra (dra åt helvete)” is that kind of song you would like to play when you’re so frustrated that smoke is coming out of your ears. But you keep it inside of you, mumble a “Have a nice day” and walk away. In this song Lovisa’s punk roots shine through in her new project Hundmänniska, and the band takes the opportunity to pour out everyhing they’ve got until they explode in a cacaphony, catches their breath and squeezes out the last anger in a finishing eruption.

Her album is scheduled for release on the 1st of March and this was the third single. I wrote about the first one, “Res dig upp”, in the Autumn, and later she also released “Inte längre” a more pop-sounding tune, which I have also added here below.

Hundmänniska on Facebook – on Spotify – on Apple Music

We can’t close our ears. Therefore sound can be both a bliss and a disturbance in life. Sound can affect our emotions immediately, without any thought or explanation. It’s an expression that is increasingly used and loved by artists and audience and there is a need for events and opportunities to put the light on what it really is: an artistic expression of its own right.

Today Sound Disturbance starts, a two day long nordic festival in Malmö for sonic art. Entrance is free and everything takes place at Inter Arts Center in Malmö. In addition to concerts with artists from all Nordic countries there are a number of interesting seminars. Furthermore you can also visit installations by comic book writers, video artists and others. The event is a collaboration between C-Y (ContemporarY), MUU and Nordnorsk Kunstnersenter.

During the concerts you can listen to experimental music from various genres, like ambient, drone, noise and electroacoustic music. There are also collaborations between sound artists and comic book writers in live sessions. The entire schedule and all information is available here.

Here are some tracks from a few of the performing artists.

A Swedish artist releasing an album with French lyrics isn’t anything you see everyday, and it’s even more uncommon if he doesn’t speak French and is known since before for his rock, pop and folk songs in Swedish. Mårten Lärka says that he’s been addicted to French music for a long time and that he has listened a lot to everything from Jacques Brel, Serge Gainsbourg and Francois Hardy to Stereo Total and Telephone. And I understand him. Due to other writings I started listening myself to French pop and rock a couple of years ago. To my surprise a fascinating world of music opened up to me.

When pop and rock currents from the US and England swept in over France in the 60’s they mingled with chanson, cabaret-traditions, world music etc and created a unique musical melting pot. I sense that they took some parts much further than in other contries, maybe because this was very much alive since before. Of course I’m thinking about the romantic side, but perhaps even more about the rebellious, provocative and defiant sides. Also humour, poetry and contemplating lyrics is something I associate with French music. Well, and then there is this thing about the language itself.

Mårten says that he heard something in French he didn’t know what it was, but that got him excited even though he didn’t understand the words. Something in the colours, the shades and the sound of the language. He decided to dive right into it and started from the beginning by studying Frech on his own.

“But I grew impatient and wrote pieces of lyrics before I had understood the language. It was quite a creative and fun way of learning a language, though. I rather feel like a pioneer in that area. You could apply it to any language education. I managed anyway to write som half-measured lyrics with good help from dictionaries.”

“My saviour was my French-speaking friend Hamid Khodja. He helped me out with pronunciation and choice of words. But it took more than a decade before we started for real. Before that all my song lyrics was in Swedish. But after several attempts to complete a tribute song for my tomato-red Renault 4 L (Laban, Quatrelle) something clicked. It just had to be done in French and there I was back again with my dictionaries.”

The end result after several years of work is the album “Alouette”, a collaboration with Hamid Khodja, who has written many of the texts and also sings on one of the tracks. The album was released last year and is an earthy, downscaled blend of rock, americana, blues and French pop vibes. I hear the rock rebel inside of him as his expression changes when he’s now singing in French instead of Swedish. And he does it with a spark of humour and catches this unexplainable French vibe in his own way. It’s a wonderful, playful and nicely unpolished record. He proves in the opening track that it had to be done in French as “Je suis un rockööör…” really can’t be expressed much cooler in any other language. I picked out three of my favourites and asked him to tell us something about the songs:

About “Je suis un rocker”: “It’s a translation of a song that was called “I am a rocker” from the beginning. We played it in the 90s in my band Opossum. When we changed name to The Trimatics we continued performing the song, but we never got a good recording. In 2014 I stumbled upon the first sketches from the portastudio and started playing with it again. On two tracks there were vocals/harmonica and guitars. I added drums and guitar fills on the two remaining tracks. This happened just as Hamid and I had started again and it fit like a glove to do it in French. This means that the harmonica and the rhythm guitar were 17 years old when the song finally ended up on vinyl. What else to say? Well, about the lyrics, “I am a rocker”. It’s about freedom and joy here as well. A naive and simple idea about seeding some love and like yourself and your life, and to be rocker once in a while.”

About “C´est ma vie ´a moi”: “The first lyrics Hamid gave me were “C´est ma vie ´a moi”. He started from a character he thought fit with my persona. It’s about living your life, with all the flaws that comes with it, without caring to much about what others has to say about it. A rather free and simple attitude to life. ‘I’m neither a prince nor a king but I sleep like a king by night’.”

About “Belle Quatrelle”: “I am (still) very proud that I on my own managed to rhyme Volvo with Voulez vous. Belle means beautiful and Quatrelle (4L) is the French nickname for the amazing car we in Sweden call Laban. A wonderful kitschy tune full of other familiar cars, that can’t be compared with Quatrelle, though. What about Porsche, Chevrolette, Citroén and the mentioned Volvo? I have written the lyrics myself but Hamid has made some corrections. After this song Hamid started writing lyrics for me. But it was “Belle Quatrelle” that started it all.”
(translated from Swedish)

Mårten Lärka’s site – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Apple Music

The band We Are She, hailing from Härnösand, has recently made a comeback with the two-track single “My Baby”. The last time we heard from them was in 2012 with a full length album. The new songs are characterized by a spacious indiepop sound which they explore in full when they build up the songs and explode in massive guitars and a great energy. “My Baby” is, like they describe it themselves, a perfect party track which I’m sure will get the live audience going, while “Devine” is a bit slower song, intensifying step by step to into a grand-sounding pop explosion. What makes the songs really stand out, and what caught me directly in the first bars in “My Baby”, is Linnea Kempe’s wonderful voice. She has this unique tone and an expression which lifts the entire song to the inviting party ambience they strive for.

We Are She on Facebook – on Spotify – on Apple Music

You are probably wondering about where Dubious Quip is. Yes, I’m talking about the artist who seven years ago gave us the track “Obedient Minds”, a contagious, laidback tune with reggae vibes. After several more songs in the same spirit he disappeared from the spotlight and after the song “Boom Boom Boom” all traces after him stop.

Rumour has it that he got a haircut and a job. And that he changed his name to Daniel Rosenholm. It just happens that an artist with the same name released a new song and music video now in January, “It’s Gonna Be Alright”. Here the urban environment has been replaced with a breath of fresh air and the electronic instruments with acoustic ones. In a melody which makes think about “Autumn Leaves” he soon picks up a sweet backbeat groove we recognize. It’s a minor-drenched comforting song that dives straight into the melancholy, introducing a warm ambience and uplifting rhythms. So I might as well say welcome back to Daniel and hope that he has more tunes underway.

Daniel Rosenholm on Facebook – on Spotify – on Apple Music

It’s exciting with music that is searching more or less actively for what it really is. That is how I perceive this album, not as if it has an identity problem, but rather like if it is trying new ways in a playful and fascinating manner. “Gnistor, irrbloss” is music for a wind quartet (mostly brass), percussion and a voice (Nicolai Dunger), who alternately improvise, sound and play compositions which sometimes just are, sometimes are pop-melodic and sometimes are fragmentary. This search also makes it hard to categorize. Sometimes it sounds like jazz, but it’s also art music and pop. “Gnistor…” is the first album of two made in this way.

The founder is Johan Arrias, who gathered the musicians playing on the album, and he also writes that the record is “a mixture of ready-mades, poetry, songs, sounds and sketches”. This makes the album appear like an art gallery or maybe like a part of an art gallery. In any case, I get quite curious about the continuation.

Sista striden

Reglerna och leken
Johan Arrias’ site – on Spotify – on Apple Music – on Bandcamp

Sveket with Magnus Olsve is back with a new single. Except from a Christmas track in 2015 it’s been a couple of years since he released a song, but with the new ” Jämtland” he continues where he left off. Sveket’s signature sound is a blend of bittersweet schlagerpop from the 60’s and newer synthloaded costumes. In “Jämtland” this mix works perfectly, and fits in a creative way with the lyrical theme as well. With music written by Mattias Petterson, Magnus finds peace again in the north of Sweden where he grew up, travelling from a rough ambience in Stockholm and seasons the journey with the eighties’ grand-sounding nostalgia all over the soundscape.

Sveket on Facebook – on Spotify – on Apple Music

It’s time to pick up the pen again and I do that in the company of the duo Anti Pony, Sanna Colling och Alexander Pierre, who have spent the Winter in the studio together with the producer Max-Måns Wikman (Dolores Haze, Those Dancing Days, Side Effects). On Thursday we get to hear the result, packaged as their first EP, “Alexander”. Here’s a taste from the album in the shape of the sweet, psychadelic and suggestive song “Pale Blue Hours”. They have refined their sound and radiate, if possible, even more vibes of the late 60’s, and a more prominent Hammond organ, than on the earlier singles, adds the finishing touch. Best so far from the duo, on all levels.

Anti Pony on Facebook – on Spotify – on Apple Music

Mankku [Mancko] – “Brustna hjärtan på annandag jul”

A Treehouse Wait – “Make the Gates All Wide”

L.E.J – “Game of Bells”

Finnegan’s Hell – “Drunken Christmas”

Femme – “2016 (Cry Cry Cry)”

The starting track “Overture” with a chanting, echoing piano, a growing dark atmosphere and a thin string on the verge of snapping immediately sets the ambience. When I listen to Jenny Garbrielsson Mare’s new album “Comb the Wicked” I’m reminded of the dark setting from her duo collaboration with Fredrik Jonasson, White Birches. But even if the electronic effects are important it is overall an organic sound that forms the base in these songs. Organ, piano, bass and percussion build a sparse, suggestive sound in a low tempo while Jenny’s soft vocals soars above it all like a spiritual being.

She wrote the songs while she was staying in Brooklyn two years ago and let the environment inspire the music in various ways. Brooklyn Bridge, Washington Avenue and the hot indian summer meet religious symbols, dark entities and thoughts about guilt in a sometimes almost meditative, nocturnal journey. The closest I can compare with is Nick Cave, but this is very much Jenny’s own sound in songs where she has broken out of the common structures. Here she also gets help from Michael Blair, an instrumentalist who has worked with artists like Tom Waits and Lou Reed, and here has added percussion and drums in a quite varied and well-sounding way, from the marching drums of “Dig Real Deep” to the gospel claps on “Hard Times”. It’s an album that really should be listened to from the beginning to the end, but I’ll give it a try to pick out two songs to taste here below:

Jenny Gabrielsson Mare’s site – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Apple Music – on Bandcamp

You may have encountered Gus Ring in a completely different context before, as a singer in the metal band Siberian. But here he’s all alone with his guitar in music he defines as acoustic dream pop. So far he’s released an album and two EP:s and is heading for a new full length record in April next year. The last EP “In search of the wonderful life” was a great listen and the first taste from the upcoming album, “Swim” here below, promises a lot for the album. Hear for yourself here.

Gus Ring’s site – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Apple Music – on Bandcamp

When Bosse Nilsson has some time over from leading the Landskrona-based record label Melody, producing other artists or playing with the band Prebens Pågar he heads out on his own under the name Nilson. His next album is scheduled for release in Spring and this Autumn he has released a couple singles as a first taste, the title track “Blessed” and “A Lullaby”. It’s a harmonic artist we meet who has settled in a low keyed and laidback mood in these soft rock ballads that come with plenty of country vibes.  Taste the two songs here below.

Nilson’s site – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Apple Music

Mindre Modiga Män is a band from Skellefteå that came into the spotlight in the first half of the 90’s through three albums. The name seemed familiar to me and when I listened I immediately recognized the track “Snälla mamma”, which was a radio hit those days. A couple of decades later the singer and front man of the band, Magnus Löfstedt, got sick in cancer. He fought against the disease for some time and when the grey clouds dispersed for a moment he started writing songs again.

He wrote two songs, “Sommarn kom” and “Bitter och barnslig”, which made his old bandmates pick up their instruments again and record the songs. Unfortunately Magnus never got to record vocals before the disease took the best of him. The band finished the songs, though, as Per Strömbro put himself behind the microphone, and last week they release a single as a tribute to their former singer.

It may seem strange at first glance to release a Summer song in the middle of the winter, but considering the circumstances there could be no better point in time. In the hardest and darkest hour Magnus wrote this uplifting, poetic and beautiful song which pours of lust for life. He leaves behind a large dose of the positive energy that fueled him in life and which can also be heard in the band’s earlier songs. Here’s to you Magnus!

Mindre Modiga Män on Facebook – on Spotify – on Apple Music