Monogatari is a band created by Sebastian Ungh. With an open mind for what could be contained in music, he started writing and recording songs in 2007 with the help of instruments from all over the world; old and new, toys and real instruments joined together in the songs and was collected in the debut album “It May Have Seemed Like a Sign of Hope That the Birds Followed Them Out Into the Vastness of the Open Sea”.

A live line-up was formed, which after several changes ended up in a septet that performs using a lot of instruments like banjo, charango, accordion, guitars, drums, bouzouki, violin, ukulele, toy piano, chimes, stylophone, harmonica and percussion in various forms. A few weeks ago the new album “One Step Forward and Two Steps Back?” was released, which is the first one in an album trilogy, to be launched during this year. The records will each have it’s own direction, with this first one having an acoustic, peaceful vibe with a lot of guitars and vaious string instruments. It’s rather naked, with folk-influences from many places and sometimes with a fairytale-ambience to it. Listen to a taste from the album here below.

Monogatari’s site – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Soundcloud

Karin Ström is perhaps mostly known for her own electronica productions from before. After six years of producing in solitude, she felt the need for some company in the studio, which led to a collaboration with the producer Mark Ephraim (A Nighthawk, Sibille Attar, Sofia Knapp). Together with the musicians Kevin Barker (Feist), Parker Kindred (Godspeed You! Black Emperor), and Tyler Wood (Antony & the Johnsons) they recorded the two songs “New York” and “Los Angeles”   in Vibromonk Studios, Brooklyn. She says that these songs are the first songs in a larger project with songs about her relation to various cities.

Karin Ström’s site – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp – on Soundcloud

High Coast, a band hailing from Malmö, released their debut EP recently. On it you’ll find four tracks with earthy, Americana-vibing acoustic music full of nature poetry. “Talvatis”, the song here below, was earlier released as a single, and got it’s name from a lake in the north of Sweden.

High Coast on Facebook – on Spotify – on Bandcamp

Here’s a piece of cool rock from the band Nocturnal who recently released the album with the same name. “One of a Kind” is the name of the song, a blues and jam rock vibing track, which was also part of the first single from the record.

Nocturnal on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp

Rigas, with Henrik von Euler in the front, released this strong track, “Kungen” (“The King”), some month ago. It’s the second single from the album “Hundra år av vinter” (“Hundred years of winter”), which was released during Spring.

Rigas site – on Spotify – on Wimp