Marcus Wallner puts the microphone on the piano, sits down and plays and sings. Afterwards he adds the choirs. As simple as that. When I ask him why he hasn’t aimed for a bigger sound with a better production he answers that he’s tried that, but that inte the end he likes this way the best.

And the songs and the sound create a special feeling, I agree with that. Like a small choir gathered around a piano singing modern hymns in front of us. Less is more? Judge for yourseld in a couple of songs from his latest EP, “A Needlework”.

You can find Marcus on his Myspace page.

Row, Dear
Hookless

Sebastian Arnström from Aerial calls himself Simian Ghost as a solo artist. And in the end of last year he released the debut album “Infinite Traffic Everywhere”.

He creates a really nice sound and pleasant atmosphere where  electronica meets lush acoustic guitars in songs where he’s experimenting as well as hooking you up with pop melodies. A great album.

You can find Simian Ghost on Myspace or on Facebook and you can listen to the album on Simian Ghost’s site or on Spotify.

Transparent is OK

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AVqlJdjhB0

We wrote about the electronica duo Valutan when they released their debut album “Blame the Voters”, a couple of years ago. They followed this with a vinyl release and then the album “Terror”.

Now they have announced that they are shutting down the band and in November they released their last single, which you can listen to below. The reasons for quitting is said to be due to both bizarre and concrete reasons, whatever that means, but at the same time I can note some openings which make me me hope that they will continue after all.

You can still find Valutan on Myspace.

Shoot a Hole In the Sky
Every Monument Is Vanity

Well, we’re back now after a short christmas break and we have loads of great music with Swedish artists to present. First up is Sleeping Dervish, a band that released the EP “The Water Scared” last year.

Well produced, somewhere between the post grungy and the grand pop, could be a description. They serve us 6 songs on the EP, and bring it all together really nice in songs like “Son of a Trader” and “The Water Scared”, songs that I won’t hesitate to play some more.

You can listen to the EP on Spotify and you can meet the band on Facebook or on Myspace.

The Water Scared

It’s time to spread som Christmas ambience here on  Meadowmusic. We wish you all a most pleasant Christmas.

If you’d like to explore earlier Christmas gifts here on Meadowmusic, you can find the songs from 2009 here and the ones from 2008 here.

First up is a wonderful collaboration between Pär Edwardson (composer and the performer of the song), Johan Strömberg (composer) and Tobbe Möller (lyrics):
Let Me In For Christmas

Next it’s time for a Christmas boogie with BFM. Armed with their recent debut album they have followed this up with a Christmas Single:
Rock Around The Xmas Tree

Art Acoustic, which we presented during Autumn, invites us to celebrate Christmas in the woods:
X-Mas In the Woods

Finally we slow it down a little and go for some Christmas ambience with ad dios. The band (which recently released the album Avalon Revisited) has a tradition of interpreting an old English Christmas carol every year, and this year they have also crossed the channel and invites us to some French Christmas ambience:
Il est né le Divin Enfant

Merry Christmas!