I like the analogy of composers painting with tones and harmonies, atmospheres, feelings and words. And if this is ever a true comparison to how a musician actually works, then it is with David Stiernholm’s project [Puie:]. His beautiful, acoustic, melodic ambient music is created from a belief in the spontaneous idea and he continues to paint with what he has at hand and what feels right.

This is how it’s described on Negative Sound Institute:
“Each piece on this release starts with a graphic idea, such as “what would it sound like if the soft oboe played a downward figure consisting of short notes, while the sharp nyckelharpa played a upward figure consisting of long notes bound together”. Then, David picks out some harmonies on the piano, just to have something to work with, like a handful of fixed colors with which to paint. He kick starts the motorcycle of creatitivity with the flailing boot of self-imposed boundaries. Then he proceeds to dismantle the boundaries and create new.”

Puie started as a collaboration with the designer Karin Gullbrantz in [Puie: Dsch], where they, in an iterative process, had images, structures and music inspire and affect one another all the way to a complete furniture design. The result was exhibited in april 2006 at Brand Design Center. You can read about, view and listen to this creative process on [Puie: Dsch]:s site, with comments by Karin and David on each step.

Another interesting collaboration is Ögonblick, where David works with Ken Peel.

Listen to three tracks with [Puie:]:

Ground
Jubel Tone
The Japanese Decision

Visit [Puie:] on Myspace and on the site
and on Negative Sound Institute, where you can also listen to and download the EP “Always-Ever”.

If you are interested in ambient and experimental music I recommend that you navigate through the artists on Negative Sound Institute. All the music there are released under a Creative Commons license, which means that you can download and share the music as much as you like, as long as it is under non-commercial circumstances.

Peter Lindström is a true music soul. I have a feeling that he breathes and eats music in some kind of way. Feelings that are streamed out to us through the music, and everything he does is about this. That’s my illusion about Peter anyway.

Maybe you have heard him before, if you are following this blog, as the voice Welkin, in Welkin and the Jangler. But a music nomad like Peter creates music in other ways too, this time as a solo artist.
Here you’ll meet a more basic singer/songwriter, with nice guitar playing, but also with Rhodes piano as in the wonderful “Baby Blue”. You can listen to three tracks here, and I should mention that he gets some help by Julia Bryngelsson, in “Now That I’m Free”.

Last spring Peter went on a US tour solo, and during two months he performed on all kind of places across the US. A tour that has both excited him and shaken him, a trip of both discomfort and joy. He has promised to write a book about his US adventures, and hopefully this man of words and music will write his book through a blog soon. This is how he writes after a few weeks on tour (translated from Swedish):

“After four gigs on this two months long but eternal tour, I became sick. With a fever and a cold and everything, I have been imprisoned in a hotel room on the outskirts of Atlantic City, for almost three days. Absecon, New Jersey. Here’s nothing to do unless you’re a prostitute, if you’re a john or if you’re offering hotel rooms for these people. I’m getting better now in any case, which is comforting since I’m supposed to bend some strings in the capital tomorrow night. So far the response has been incredible, and it’s been a while since I’ve felt so excited to get out and sing my songs to people. The records are selling but, believe it or not, the money is hard to hold on to. But then again, spending three days too close to Atlantic City may not be so wise.”

Baby Blue
Alyantic City
Now That I’m Free

Visit Peter on Myspace

“Phony Baloney” (Austin TX, 4/28 -08)

Here’s some music that hopefully puts you in a good mood. Don’t get fool by the name Heart-Sick Groans, because the ambience is just opposite of what could be expected. Fun.

This is happy indie pop with folk influences. Imaginative, playful and mostly acoustic arrangements, with a violin, with tasteful effects and nice harmonies that are laid out in the best Beautiful South manner.

Earlier this year they released the EP “Oh, I Can Do a Number of Things”, and you can listen to a song from the EP below, “The Season For Us”. Now they are recording some new material, from which you can listen to “Suddenly Molly” here.

The Season For Us
Suddenly Molly

Visit Heart-Sick Groans on Myspace

Other music sites and blogs about Heart-sick Groans: Swedesplease, Absolutepunk.net, Pop Tarts Suck Toasted

Robert Vadadi is the central character in this emo inspired band, and the debut album has just been released. Even if there are some models here, it feels like a very personal album, which Robert emphasizes with his special, almost whispering voice.

The music are sometimes a mellow pop/rock, with grand choruses and a driving beat, where the toms are worked hard. And in some songs it’s about more quiet thoughts with beautiful melodies. Mellow yes, but not as dark as thought from the start, rather a sense of hope beneath the surface, human and beautiful. Personal.

The album is available for purchase on the big net shops, and the best deal is with CDBaby, where it’s available for the neat price of 2.5 dollars. If you would like a CD, there is a special offer where Robert personally will deliver the record to your door for the price of 399 euros. (an offer you can’t refuse? :-))

Listen to and download two tracks from the album:

Loveless
Forgive Me (feat Tess)

You can listen to the entire album on Lastfm
and Vadadi also has a Myspace page
Vadadis site

The People is one of the best sounding rock bands I’ve heard this year. They have such an energy, spontaneity, joy and fantasy that the “must-see-them-live”-feeling comes readily. Yes, it really feels like a live band, but maybe I should turn it around and be fascinated about the fact that they can convey this feeling in the recordings.

There is a lot of retro feeling in their music. Here you’ll meet the sixties in various influences from jam bands like MC5 to music with nice choruses and harmonies, the seventies with the early Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and others, hooky guitar licks and riffs, with everything mixed down to their own wild blend of rock.

There are four skilled musicians in this band and I’m convinced that Ron Aiden, the singer, could have entered any rock band from the sixties, with his strong expression.

Listen to three tracks from The People. “The Misantrooper” about how you can feel after too many trips on the subway, “He’s Just One of a Kind” about people that refuse to leave you alone and “Revelation (the Gospel of Joseph)” where the father of the holy hippie tries to explain the obscurities about virgin birth.

The Misantrooper
He’s Just One of a Kind
Revelation (the Gospel of Joseph)

Listen to more songs on The People’s Myspace page