March 13, 2012 at 2:50 pm
You can call it acoustic folk punk or Swedish progressive music if you’d like. The band JA!, hailing from Umeå, released this year their debut album “Vi heter ja” (“Our name is YES!”); 8 songs with clenched fists, sing-a-long refrains an Swedish prog melancholy. They call themselves street musicians and the frequent performances in streets and town squares is what has shaped the band’s music. The singer Johan Wallén writes:
Since May 2010 we have played for thousands of people in the streets. 12 people here, 40 people there, 100 people there and then for 6 people at a bus stop. Last year we played live more than most bands rehearse, if not more. We walk up to a group of people and say: “Hey, we’re going to play a song for you now”, and then we just play. Often it ends up in a sing-a-long and we leave a bunch of happy people behind as we head on to the next place.
(translated from Swedish)
The band name was invented just when the project started. Johan renamed the work folder for the song “En trosa med en blomma” (“Panties with a flower”) to JA! And according to Johan JA! (“Yes!”) has come to stand for positive songs that provoke, Yes! to love, anarchy for the free thought and that everyone should be allowed to be exactly who they are.
The album is available on Spotify, Wimp and Bandcamp. You can follow the band on Facebook and on their blog.
Sliten men vacker
February 22, 2012 at 5:44 pm
I wrote about Profetian about a year ago. The project has taken shape and recently the duo released the EP “Stormen i Sågmon”. Now they sing entirely in Swedish and they call it doomsday pop and lo-funk. I’d like to add blackness and vibes from Swedish progressive music to this description.
According to the singer Christoffer Johansson, the name Profetian (“The Prophecy”) sort of grew out of the development of the songs, as these became darker and more serious. Christoffer wrote a poem with the name “Profetian”, with a content that in short meant “Everything’s going to hell, if we don’t shape up”. Since this ended up being an undertone in the songs they took it as their band name.
Profetian has a Facebook page and you can listen to and download the EP on Bandcamp.
Gråljus
January 18, 2012 at 12:54 pm
Klifton Filente released the new album “Breaking the Clouds” in the end of the last year. It’s a good album with nice melodies in the same spirit as the last album “Common Ground”. I don’t think, though, that “Breaking the Clouds” reaches the same heights as the predecessor, but if you’re a Klifton-fan, you won’t be dissappointed.
The artist name Klifton Filente is, according to the man behind it, Jonas Lundvall, a play with words. In french you say “un étoile filante” (a falling star, a meteorite), and this frase stuck with him a couple of years ago when he started the project, and was transformed into Klifton Filente.
You can listen to and download the album for free on his Bandcamp page. It’s also available on Spotify.
Foremost of the Westeners
January 10, 2012 at 4:13 pm
We’ve met Tomeu Alcover and his nylon-stringed guitar before here on Meadowmusic. The songs we presented then finally found a home in November on his new album “Transparent”. Accompanied by drummer Robert Ikiz and bass player Kristian Lind he’s created a soft, beautiful album with his own mix of jazz, latino, flamenco, folk and classical influences. You can listen to the whole album on his site.
Besides this solo album he also released another album in the same month, “Història Sobre Blanc”, but this time performing under the name Nit Project. This is also instrumental music, but using piano and synths in beautiful, slightly mellow and minimalistic arrangements. It feels filmic and has also been used as the soundtrack for the Spanish TV series “Història Sobre Blanc”. Listen to the other songs on Nit Project’s site.
Two and a Half Years (Tomeu Alcover, “Transparent”)
Juga amb mi (Nit Project, “Història Sobre Blanc”)
