True to my traditions I’ve collected some new Christmas songs this year also, which I’m going to present here today.

Our friends in Crying Day Care Choir have recorded a Christmas EP with four tracks, called “Christmas Day Care Choir”. What’s extra nice about this is that they are donating all income from the album to Musikhjälpen during this week, i.e. until December 15th. Musikhjälpen is a project run by the public TV and Radio in Sweden each year, collecting money for people in need. This year it’s about women’s rights to survive pregnancies. If you’d like to help the band to help, you can just click download in the player below.

YAST presented their album debut earlier this year and walks out of it with this fine Christmas song, “If Santa Ain’t Real”, accompanied by Alice Boman on backing vocals.

Magnus Bergman has worked hard with releasing singles this year, and it’s only logical that he would make a Christmas single as well. It’s called “Decembernatt” and is a remake of his own song, this time in a duet version together with Kim Vestin.

And it’s great that Brainpool make a comeback after almost ten years of silence, and they do that with this Christmas single “The Last Christmas”:

Tenonsaw, who released the album “Avenging Angels” during the Autumn, also wanted to contribute to the Christmas ambience. Of course they also want to experiment, and they do this by combining Mariah Careys “All I Want For Christmas Is You” and U2:s “All I Want Is You” into this song:

Next up is some lovely classical sounding Christmas jazz from Gunhild Carling, here with her new single “Winter’s Day”:

I’m finishing with celtic punk rockers Finnegan’s Hell, who serve us a Christmas song in the spirit of social realism, as they write, “Drunken Christmas (An Irish Christmas Song)”:

I hope you can find your Christmas spirit in this post; there are quite different versions to choose from here above. Merry Christmas to you, and thank you for coming here reading my posts and most of all for listening to the music.

I’ll continue with a peek at Magnus Bergman’s song releases from Summer. “Ölandsidyll” and “Långt Härifrån” are two of them with his earthy Swedish country rock vibing sound.

Magnus Bergman’s site – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Soundcloud

Sisilisko is a Finnish word for the “Night of the lizards”, a state said to occur between Sunday and Monday where you half asleep dream nightmares about death and decay, travelling through deep, quiet and dark woods. It is also a duo formed by Albin Boman and Peter Engqvist who brings this theme into their folk-like music. So far they have released a two-track single with black, powerful, a bit frightening but also suggestively beautiful folk rock songs, where I think they’re at their best in the mighty “Under Your Skin”.

Sisilisko on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp – on Rara – on Bandcamp

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.

It’s been a couple of year since I wrote about Lars Wallin & The Tribe here on the blog. I hear from Lars, though, a little while ago as they are releasing some new singles this year, and I thought I’d present one of them here, “Rue De Mémoire”.

I recognise the somewhat harsh protest singer expression, the punk vibes and of course Lars signature, his didgeridoo. What makes this song even more special is that two famous touareg-musicians join the band in the song, the cajon-drummer Alain Plume and the bass player Zahir Aribi, which altogether  becomes a unique mix of influences from three continents (or four?). Listen here below.

Lars Wallin & the Tribes’ site – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Rara – on Soundcloud