Meadow Music

Joakim Jakobsson is a former member of The Search and last year he started the band Duellen (The Duel) together with Argentinian Brian Biezki. Brian soon left the band and instead the former The Search-members Tina Bergström and Mikael Saltzman plus Olle Bilius (Jeniferever) and Simon Lundström entered the band. Then in december the five-track debut EP was released.

It’s indie pop in Swedish, rather darkly colored, radiating with vibes from the eighties’ new wave scene. They vary smoothly from synth based songs to guitar driven ones without losing the atmosphere. Straight melodies that stick quite fast on a good EP that promises more.

You can listen to the EP on Duellen’s Bandcamp page and on Spotify. You can follow the band on Facebook.

Sanningen

Joakim Jakobsson is a former member of The Search and last year he started the band Duellen (The Duel) together with Argentinian Brian Biezki. Brian soon left the band and instead the former The Search-members Tina Bergström and Mikael Saltzman plus Olle Bilius (Jeniferever) and Simon Lundström entered the band. Then in december the five-track debut EP was ...

Pal is Albin Johansson hailing from Malmö. In December he launched the 7-track debut album “Weeks”. It’s about a rather soft, dreamy pop, a bit minimalistic. The mix of analogue synths, guitars, old drum machines and often a nice rolling bass give a special feeling to the sound. It feels a little retro and I can’t help thinking of Air when I listen to the harmonies and the bass figures. A very nice new acquaintance and you can listen to the entire album on Pal’s Bandcamp page.

The name Pal, Albin invented in 2007 when he uploaded his first home recordings to Myspace. He wanted to be anonymous and he liked the combination with the hint to his first name and the meaning of the word.

You can also find Pal on Tumblr, Facebook and on Spotify.

Anything

Pal is Albin Johansson hailing from Malmö. In December he launched the 7-track debut album "Weeks". It's about a rather soft, dreamy pop, a bit minimalistic. The mix of analogue synths, guitars, old drum machines and often a nice rolling bass give a special feeling to the sound. It feels a little retro and I ...

Four years after the last album The Culture In Memoriam released the third album, “Rest In Pieces”, in the end of last year. Behind the artist name we find Victor Håkansson as the only permanent member together with a range of musicians in what Victor calls a music collective.

Pavestone pop he calls the music which in more than one way symbolise the music, also in a way like two opposites meet. The beautiful melodies, the string and backing vocals arrangements that give an air of classic bombastic pop from both the sixties and the seventies, and at the same time the distortion, the unpolished and fragility in Victor’s voice that give everything a raw indie vibe. Together with the critical lyrics it all ends up as an urgent message.

I haven’t listened to the earlier albums, so I can’t compare, but to me “Rest In Pieces” feels like a solid album that grows after time, with no in-between tracks at all. Listen here below to the first song of the album, “Run Emelie”.

You can find The Culture In Memoriam on the home page, on Facebook and on Spotify.

Run Emelie

Four years after the last album The Culture In Memoriam released the third album, "Rest In Pieces", in the end of last year. Behind the artist name we find Victor Håkansson as the only permanent member together with a range of musicians in what Victor calls a music collective. Pavestone pop he calls the music which in ...

Behind the artist name Morris i motljus we find Henrik Ivarsson. In the Autumn he released the EP “Morris i motljus”, seven instrumental songs, which directly transfered me to the movies. There are alternating bombastic rock orchestral works and softer, more ambient tracks, like it was made for an epic adventure on the big screen.

A couple of years ago Henrik read a newspaper article with the headline “Jag fruktade att de hade ätit Morris” (“I feared that they had eaten Morris”), a story about an old lady who was afraid that the fox had taken her cat. During summer 2010 he came up with the idea that he would compose music for the story, thereby also starting to realize his dream of creating music for film.

“Jag fruktade att de hade ätit Morris” was only a project name from the start, but soon after he had released the music on the net, it de facto became his artist name. As he never was comfortable with that name, he took the opportunity to change it before this release.

You can listen to and download the EP for free on his Bandcamp page and you can also find him on Facebook. Here’s the opening track “Drömmar är som vackrast innan de går i uppfyllelse” (“Dreams are most beautiful before they come true”:

Drömmar är som vackrast innan de går i uppfyllelse

Behind the artist name Morris i motljus we find Henrik Ivarsson. In the Autumn he released the EP "Morris i motljus", seven instrumental songs, which directly transfered me to the movies. There are alternating bombastic rock orchestral works and softer, more ambient tracks, like it was made for an epic adventure on the big screen. A couple ...

Tenonsaw is a Swedish-Irish duo with the members Salt Eriksson and Thomas Luke. In the Autumn they first released the debut album “Beginnings”, and later, in November, the EP “Pact”. It’s not that easy to describe their music and I can’t really find any close comparisons among other artists.

The foundation, and what they also started with, is folk music; melancholic and with Tom’s acoustic guitar accompanying Salt’s sad song melodies. Soon, electronica, guitar figures and other sounds add new layers in a minimalistic way. Scales clashes with other scales and new layers add other types of emotions, which sometimes create slightly chaotic situations where there are no rules. They describe the ambition themselves:

…create emotional songbased music, based on the principle on finding the balance between clarity and confusion and between ugliness and beauty.

There is a large span between the songs, where they sometimes lie very close to folk music tunes and sometimes have left it completely behind. You can listen to the title track from the EP here below, and the rest of the songs are available on their Bandcamp page. You can find the duo on their site and on Facebook.

The name Tenonsaw they found in a dictionary while looking for a suitable band name. They liked the association with sharpness and details, and that it’s a small saw, not a big dangerous one.

Pact

Tenonsaw is a Swedish-Irish duo with the members Salt Eriksson and Thomas Luke. In the Autumn they first released the debut album "Beginnings", and later, in November, the EP "Pact". It's not that easy to describe their music and I can't really find any close comparisons among other artists. The foundation, and what they also started ...

Charlie Persson has released a couple of songs from the upcoming EP “Re:cycling”, which is to be released next week, on January 26th. “Den Stora Kärleken (Tur & Retur)” is a beautiful and sad song, sparsely arranged yet grand, and it feels like Charlie has taken a step back with his mic, if I compare to the earlier closer productions. A new sound coming up maybe, and it’ll be interesting to listen to the EP.

There is another song to taste from the EP, which you can listen to on his site. For news about the album I recommend following Charlie Persson on Facebook.

Den Stora Kärleken (Tur & Retur)

Charlie Persson has released a couple of songs from the upcoming EP "Re:cycling", which is to be released next week, on January 26th. "Den Stora Kärleken (Tur & Retur)" is a beautiful and sad song, sparsely arranged yet grand, and it feels like Charlie has taken a step back with his mic, if I ...

Klifton Filente released the new album “Breaking the Clouds” in the end of the last year. It’s a good album with nice melodies in the same spirit as the last album “Common Ground”. I don’t think, though, that “Breaking the Clouds” reaches the same heights as the predecessor, but if you’re a Klifton-fan, you won’t be dissappointed.

The artist name Klifton Filente is, according to the man behind it, Jonas Lundvall, a play with words. In french you say “un étoile filante” (a falling star, a meteorite), and this frase stuck with him a couple of years ago when he started the project, and was transformed into Klifton Filente.

You can listen to and download the album for free on his Bandcamp page. It’s also available on Spotify.

Foremost of the Westeners

Klifton Filente released the new album "Breaking the Clouds" in the end of the last year. It's a good album with nice melodies in the same spirit as the last album "Common Ground". I don't think, though, that "Breaking the Clouds" reaches the same heights as the predecessor, but if you're a Klifton-fan, you ...

Ambas is a duo who’s name is formed from two members Amber Watts’ och Jonas Lundqvist’s first names. In the Autumn they released their debut EP, the soul vibing “Places”. There you’ll find four quite enjoyably songs; it’s feels souly, a little jazzy and airy, and at the same time experimental, liberated from many of the clichés from the genres they are walking into. Amber Watts has a nice, soft tone in her vocals, like it was made for this music.

The fact that they have created this as a part of a project on the music highschool Rytmus, where they both attend, makes it even more impressive. They write, though, that it won’t stop there and that they will continue with the band afterwards. If you like what you hear, you can follow them  on Facebook, and then you can read their Tumblr blog, where you also can listen to the entire EP and download it. Here’s a song from the album:

Train

Ambas is a duo who's name is formed from two members Amber Watts' och Jonas Lundqvist's first names. In the Autumn they released their debut EP, the soul vibing "Places". There you'll find four quite enjoyably songs; it's feels souly, a little jazzy and airy, and at the same time experimental, liberated from many of ...

In November Black Guillemot, hailing from Göteborg, released their first EP, “Knut Hamsun”. The band consists of members from Jet Link and Since Our First Guitar, two bands I have presented here before. And it’s also easy to recognize Josef Wikström’s characteristic vocals in these indie pop vibing songs.

You can listen to three good songs and download them on the band’s Bandcamp page. You can also find them on Facebook and on Spotify.

The band name comes from Josef Wikström’s fascination for birds and especially bird legs. He says that he would like to try to have bird legs one day, preferably thick and resilient ones, like ostrich legs.

He was looking for bird names that sounded good, found that Red-Footed Falcon didn’t work as a band name, and finally found the bird Black Guillemot, which sounded cool (tordmule in Swedish).

Here’s the title track from the EP:

Knut Hamsun

In November Black Guillemot, hailing from Göteborg, released their first EP, "Knut Hamsun". The band consists of members from Jet Link and Since Our First Guitar, two bands I have presented here before. And it's also easy to recognize Josef Wikström's characteristic vocals in these indie pop vibing songs. You can listen to three good songs and download ...

We’ve met Tomeu Alcover and his nylon-stringed guitar before here on Meadowmusic. The songs we presented then finally found a home in November on his new album ”Transparent”. Accompanied by drummer Robert Ikiz and bass player Kristian Lind he’s created a soft, beautiful album with his own mix of  jazz, latino, flamenco, folk and classical influences. You can listen to the whole album on his site.

Besides this solo album he also released another album in the same month, “Història Sobre Blanc”, but this time performing under the name Nit Project. This is also instrumental music, but using piano and synths in beautiful, slightly mellow and minimalistic arrangements. It feels filmic and has also been used as the soundtrack for the Spanish TV series “Història Sobre Blanc”. Listen to the other songs on Nit Project’s site.

Two and a Half Years (Tomeu Alcover, “Transparent”)
Juga amb mi (Nit Project, ”Història Sobre Blanc”)

We've met Tomeu Alcover and his nylon-stringed guitar before here on Meadowmusic. The songs we presented then finally found a home in November on his new album "Transparent". Accompanied by drummer Robert Ikiz and bass player Kristian Lind he's created a soft, beautiful album with his own mix of  jazz, latino, flamenco, folk and classical influences. You can ...