The Örnsköldsvik citizen and the singer/songwriter Lars Ekengren plays a number of instruments when he creates his beautiful Americana-inspired music. The acoustic guitar is used frequently as well as the piano, but I think his strongest instrument is his voice, that seems to be made for this music. Sligthly rough like from one of the finest sandpapers and a soul-bluesy softness and feeling that makes it sound great. It’s obvious that he’s influenced by American music, and one of the sources of this is of course him living there for more than five years:

“I heard a lot of good music when I lived in the USA (Detroit) and it has probably sculpted me and my music somewhat. A lot of not especially known (in Sweden), but yet really good artists like for example Jeffrey Foucault, Mark Erelli, Richard Buckner, Jeff Black, Peter Mulvey, Patti Griffin, Buddy/Julie Miller, Richard Shindell, John Gorka, Peter Bruntnell, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Lori McKenna, Kathleen Edwards and others…”

“Then of course we have Springsteen, Dylan, John Hiatt, Alison Krauss, Gillian Welch, Ryan Adams, Counting Crows, Son Volt, Uncle Tupelo, Emmylou Harris, Mellencamp, Jackson Browne and so on…”

About his songwriting he says:

“I have a love-hate relationship with the songwriting: 10% comes all by itself (a frase, a chord etc), the remaining 90% is pure discipline. If one should write songs only “when inspired”, nothing ever would be done. I think those that tell the contrary are lying. If that is the case, then I really lack inspiration.
The lyrics take time…” (translated from Swedish)

He claims that “I wouldn’t be able to play a barre chord even if my life was at stake”, so besides the ambition to play more concerts in the future and maybe form a band, a goal is to learn barre chords… :-)

Listen to and download three tracks from Lars Ekengren:

Distance
Hope & Faith
Hands

You will find more tracks to enjoy at Lars Ekengrens site, and you can also visit him on Myspace.

I’m sitting here listening to Petra Engdahl’s debut album and just enjoying. It’s soothing and beautiful and it’s made for just to be inside the music and let go of all thoughts. She uses few means to build the strong ambience in the songs. Mostly it’s about the piano and Petra’s voice, but the acoustic guitar is also used frequently, and often she colours with electric guitars, organ, strings and other sounds.

As an album it’s as varying as I like an album to be. You can’t tire of the music with these range of songs and yet she keeps it quite still with an atmosphere that runs through the entire album.

You can listen to and download three tracks below and of course you should visit Petras on Myspace to discover some more.

Closer to
Collectors (with Martin Nilsson)
Trail

Two years ago Stereolith had the honour to open for Europe on their Nordic tour. Two bands from two different generations of hard rock. Europe sailed through the eighties mostly under the term “melodic hard rock” (strange term btw, as if other types of hard rock didn’t have melodies) and they were quite successful at that. Almost two decades separate the bands, but they fit together quite well, as Stereolith may be viewed as a 20th century counterpart in style. That is, with the hard rock and metal of today as the base, catchy melodies and a strong front figure and songwriter in Oscar Ammer. I do hope though, that they skip the modern version of “Carrie” ;-)

Be Alone:

Nickelback is close by to compare with, but I think that Stereolith feels heavier and less polished (nice). The grunge has also a significant influence, which is quite obvious in some songs.
Listen to and download a couple of tracks from Stereolith’s debut album:

Still Strong
Be Alone

Besök Stereoliths hemsida och deras Myspace-sida

The first time I heard Vindra, a couple of years ago, I dismissed them somewhat hastily. But the more songs I listened to they grew upon me and I started to hear the facets of their music. I like their style, and in fact I think they have found their own lane with a sound that feels like it’s their own.

From my point of view this feels like a mix between the FM rock of the eighties and some of the more atmospheric pop of this century, if that makes sense to you :-) I like the space in their productions, the dynamics, in the middle of the present loudness war with all compressed pop and rock releases, and it makes me rather comfortable to listen to Vindra for a while. Of course inventive and creative songwriting helps along with a high class singer and front man.

Vindra comes from Linköping, Sweden, they started as a band in 2004 and have released two EP:s sofar and this year participated on three collections. In 2009 they will release their debut full length album.

Get to know Vindra:

Will We Ever Know
Incomplete
Clouds

Besök Vindra’s site and Vindra on Myspace

The duo Newgate Fringes consists of Jesper Zakrisson and Johan Hansson and they celebrate 5 years as a band this winter. They have released three albums before and are just about to release their fourth, “Keeping the Score”. I recommend you to visit Newgate Fringes’ site, where you can download and listen to many tracks from their earlier records.

This is singer/songwriter music with a mellow touch, with tight beautiful vocal harmonies and nice guitar arrangements. In their latest album they produced an ambience that made me sometimes think of the early sixties with Everly Brothers and early Simon & Garfunkel, emphasized by the great percussion ideas in some tracks.

With the new songs they have moved on to larger arrangements with more instruments, but still with the same base and feeling in the songs. You can taste this by listening to two tracks here below. “In Her Shoes” is a track originally from the album “Collecting Your Points”, but this newer version is produced by David and Ludwig Franzén at Arrowstreet Recordings in Umeå. The Score is produced by the band.

In Her Shoes
The Score

Visit Newgate Fringes’ site and their Myspace page