Fort Fairfield – “Prenzlauer Berg”

August 16, 2013 at 1:13 pm

Fort Fairfield

A little less than a year ago I presented the duo Fort Fairfield’s smooth song “Danziger Strasse“, and I think it’s appropriate that I also present the album where the song ended up. It’s called “Prenzlauer Berg” and was released in Spring. 16 tracks with nice laidback bass figures and an almost minimalistic instrumental electronica. A coherent and very much enjoyable album. Here are two tracks; one of them with guest vocals from Cosima Lamberth.

Fort Fairfield on Facebook – Spotify – Soundcloud

More music memories from Roskilde…

August 14, 2013 at 1:28 pm
Jake Bugg

Jake Bugg

I’m going to kick off the Autumn season today by presenting some more artists I discovered at Roskilde, and then continue with loads of new Swedish music. Here’s a beautiful collection of music of various genres and from different parts of the world:

Jake Bugg

Jake Bugg from England serves some brit pop, but first of all folk rock with a luster of the early sixties; the best I’ve heard in the genre lately. Here are two songs from the latest album, which is available on Soundcloud, among other pages.

Felipe Cordeiro

Lovely mix of brasilian traditions and pop. Playful, rhythmical, melodic..

Dead Can Dance

A comeback from a band that’s been quiet for 16 years. Reverb drenched, beautifully melancholic ambience.

Sohn

Smooth, soft soul and electronica from this Englishman.

Dawanggang

A unique blend of chinese traditions and music from our part of the world, from this band with former punk rocker Song Yuzhe in the front.

Devin Townsend Project

Grand arena rock from Canada that doesn’t hold back in any way.

Ásgeir Trausti

Beautiful Icelandic pop.

Rokia Traoré

African traditions, funk and a wonderful soul-earthy voice from Rokia Traoré, hailing from Mali.

My Bubba

Swedish-Icelandish duo which breathes of  folk, blues and Joni Mitchell.

Calexico

Country rock and mexican horns from thus American duo.

To Roskilde – Danish menu

July 2, 2013 at 8:35 pm
Efterklang

Efterklang

The Roskilde Festival is an excellent occasion for me to get out of my bubble of mainly Swedish indie music, where you normally find me. During the year I continually listen to all music tips I get about Swedish artists, and there is little time left for anything else. Even so, I feel that I’m only scratching the surface of this area, limited also by my own taste and by what I think I have some kind of understanding of. I guess I have sligthly more insight than most people of my niche, but outside of that I feel rather lost.

There are Swedish artists performing att The Roskilde Festival, like for example Lykke Li, Postiljonen, Chords, Wintergatan, Woodlands and Elliphant, but they are few and some of them play early in the week before I arrive on Thursday. So I’m listening to all the other artists to be able to make some kind of schedule for what I want to see. Of course I have to sync this with my daughter’s wish list, which goes quite well I must say, probably because both of us have a broad music menu and love to discover new niches.

Well, width is a keyword if you’d like to describe the festival’s range of music. And then it’s not only about that they serve you everything from doom-metal to country to house to indie pop and everything in between; it’s also about where the artists come from. It is like the organizers chose the biggest paint brush they could find to paint with as many colors as possible on the relatively small pop-canvas that Roskilde represent. I was fascinated when I studied the list of artists, discovering that they came from Finland, Danmark, Hungary, Mali, Brasil, Colombia, Egypt, USA, Etiopia, South Korea, Iceland, Bosnia, Pakistan, Zimbabwe, Sweden, Norway, UK, Australia, Marocko, New Zeeland, Estonia, Angola, Portugal, Puerto Rico, France, Niger, Germany and Canada (I probably have forgotten to name some countries), and I wondered how they could fit all this into the festival.

Today I thought that I would present some artists from our neighbours Denmark, which is just a few steps from where I live here in the south of Sweden, and naturally there are quite a few Danish artists performing at the festival. It’s been on my mind for some time to dive into the Danish music scene, but I haven’t had the time so far. Here are a few of those that I will try to watch:

Efterklang

Three childhood friends started this band in 2000. Big, warm sound spaces, beautiful pop with a stillness that sometimes reminds me of Black.

Tomas Barfod

Creative electronica which moves from smooth pop melodies to ambient crisp sound experiments.

Marie Key

Danish is a fantastic language for pop music, and it doesn’t get more heartfelt and beautiful than with Marie Key in this big-sounding singer/songwriter pop.

Pinkunoizu

Defies all genre description in a crazy mix of musical escapades, which I feel just have to be fantastic to experience live. From experimental excursions to great melodies. Unfortunately they play at the same time as Queens of The Stone Age, so it will be hard to choose.

Quadron

Gracious, beautiful electro soul.

Social Ambitions – “Hunger”

June 25, 2013 at 5:02 pm

Social Ambitions

The electronica duo Social Ambitions’ new album “Hunger” feels almost like an excursion through the synth pop of the eighties and also like a mix of light and darkness. They also vary by singing in both Swedish and English on the album which changes the experience from song to song. They start out with happy Vince Clarke-sounding figures and then glide over to a darker almost Depeche Mode-vibing sound and they also dive into German-inspired hard electronica, while I get breaths of Adolphson & Falk in a track like “Skrämselhicka”. Here’s a couple of tracks from the album.

Social Ambitions’ site – on Facebookon Spotifyon Wimpon Raraon Soundcloud

Melodies In Mono

June 25, 2013 at 12:36 pm

Melodies In Mono

Melodies In Mono is exactly what it sounds like: a project with music recorded in mono. Behind the project we find Max Ekholm who crafts fine melodies in a classic synth pop costume. Listen here below to one of the latest singles, “Make Things Right”.

Melodies In Mono on Facebookon Soundcloud

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