I’m starting this week with Highmountain; acoustic singer-songwriter pop with a large dose of american folk music. Behind the project we find Axel Högberg, hailing from Stockholm and earlier singer in the psychadelia band Lynx and Me. This Spring he released the two-track single “I Will & Above You” where you can listen to the beautiful duet with Natalie Bergqvist “I Will, Will You” here below. His debut came last year with the excellent, self-made EP “Expectations On The Banyan Tree”, which you can taste here with the song “You Can’t Walk Down the Same River Twice”.

Highmountain’s site - on Facebook – on Spotify – on Bandcamp

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

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

The two sistes Piroth continues with their plan of releasing a new song each season, the most recent one “På fältet” which is out now. Beautiful, acoustic and folk-melancholic, and as before illustrated above by the artist Kheira Linder. The third song, “Morgondimma” (“Morning Mist”) will be released in the end of May.

Piroths hemsida – på Facebook – på Spotify – på Wimp - på Soundcloud

The Danish-Swedish band Afenginn was formed in 2002 and have now released five full length albums, counting the latest “Lux” which was released in the beginning of the year. I think it’s a wonderful album, where I felt just after a few bars that this was going to be a different and special experience.

They have their base in folk music, where maybe the balkan influence is what can be sensed most strongly, but I wouldn’t complain if someone called it classical music or jazz for that matter. It’s a blend of all this into their very own Afenginn brew, seductively beautiful, melancholic and which also gives me a strong filmic sensation as I listen. You can listen to the whole album on their Bandcamp page.

Afenginns site - on Facebook -on Bandcamp

Waldhotel Solitaire
Paxima

In the Autumn Rasmus Faber and the German duo Syke’n'Sugarstarr released the house hit “We Go Oh“. In this beautiful acoustic version there are not many house vibes left, though. In the press text they write: “So for those of you who don’t like house music or think that Swede’s who make house music are…. well, not particularly musical, this is for you : )”. Behind the microphone yo’ll find Linus Norda.

Rasmus Faber’s site -  on Facebook - on Spotify – on Soundcloud

Syke’n'Sugarstarr’s site - on Facebook

Besides working with music Knut Svanholm works as a mate on a sailing ship, and that’s also where many of his songs are created; somewhere out on the Mediterranean, on the Atlantic ocean or in the Caribbean sea. Last year he released the solo album “Ergasiophobia” and also the record “The Angry Kid” with his band LOBST, which I wrote about here on the blog. Fleet of Clay is another of his projects which I have also written about as I paid some attention to the excellent album ”The Essential Fleet of Clay”.

This year he’s released the solo collection “Acoustrophé”, which is something like his own version of “Rare Tracks”: songs that didn’t fit into the earlier works and that he decided to record now, live tracks and other odd songs, where you’ll find for example a translation to English of  ”Vargasången” from Ronia the Robber’s Daughter and an attempt to make a Bond theme song. I like the new recordings the best, the first four tracks, where he’s alone with his guitar (except on one song), it’s personal, naked and inspired by his travelling life. The whole album feels a little like getting to know Knut a little better, and it’s clearly a pleasant acqaintance.

Knut Svanholm on Facebook – on Spotify

Stray Dog
Feels Like Loneliness

“We Are Men, We Travel Distance” is the name of the duo The Good Legs’ debut album, which was released in September. The band members are Björn Andersson (vocals and guitars) and Elias Sundberg (percussion), who have played together many years before they decided two years ago to start playing live. The music is acoustic with the roots in american folk music, where Björn’s skilful and intense guitar playing is the driving force in the songs’ arrangements, and the closest comparison I come to think of is José Gonzalez and his Junip. At first I missed some breathing space on the album, some dynamics, but the record has been growing with each listen, and I find myself being more and more fascinated with the songs, the melodies and Björn’s variations and fantasy in his guitar playing. Listen for yourself in a song here below.

The Good Legs’ site - on Facebook – on Spotify – on Bandcamp

Forty Years

Sara Thuresson, based in Malmö, with her personal, beautiful, piano based folk pop, hasn’t appeared here yet. So I take the opportunity to present her now when she has a new album coming up, “Jag tror det är möjligt”. Well the album is available as a CD already, but I’m waiting for the digital release. Anyway, she has released a few songs, so we can taste the album, among them the duet “Vakna” with Mikael Wiehe from last year, which will now appear on the album. From before you have also the album “Jag säger nu” to enjoy.

Sara Thuresson’s site - on Facebook - on Spotify – on Soundcloud

Lärkträdet, a music collective from Umeå with the two songwriters Freyr Flodgren and Ludvig Söderström in the front, presented some beautiful songs in the end of last year. It feels summery, romantic and dreamy in a pleasant and warm acoustic sound.

Lärkträdet on Facebook – on Soundcloud