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

Tenonsaw is a Swedish-Irish duo with the members Salt Eriksson and Thomas Luke. In the Autumn they first released the debut album “Beginnings”, and later, in November, the EP “Pact”. It’s not that easy to describe their music and I can’t really find any close comparisons among other artists.

The foundation, and what they also started with, is folk music; melancholic and with Tom’s acoustic guitar accompanying Salt’s sad song melodies. Soon, electronica, guitar figures and other sounds add new layers in a minimalistic way. Scales clashes with other scales and new layers add other types of emotions, which sometimes create slightly chaotic situations where there are no rules. They describe the ambition themselves:

…create emotional songbased music, based on the principle on finding the balance between clarity and confusion and between ugliness and beauty.

There is a large span between the songs, where they sometimes lie very close to folk music tunes and sometimes have left it completely behind. You can listen to the title track from the EP here below, and the rest of the songs are available on their Bandcamp page. You can find the duo on their site and on Facebook.

The name Tenonsaw they found in a dictionary while looking for a suitable band name. They liked the association with sharpness and details, and that it’s a small saw, not a big dangerous one.

Pact

The duo Old Amica, which I wrote about earlier this year, have now released their debut album “Debris”. They continue to explore their special sound landscapes they introduced us to in their earlier releases. They write that although there are no overall theme for the album, many songs is about loosing the feeling for a home.

And the music in itself has no obvious genre home. There is a feeling of folk music and influences from for example Neil Young, but the acoustic parts are equally interwoven with electronic pads, sound figures and beats, in songs that can be experienced as ambient as well as traditionally built melodic songs. It’s mellow and reflects solitude and vast landscapes, but there is also a warmth and softness, well maybe humility is a better word, like if they have covered everything with a nice blanket to rest on.

Johan Kisro, one half of the band, tells that the band name originally comes from a sailing boat named “Amica” that his family owned when he was a kid. When they duo started playing together he found some old photos of the boat and thought that it would fit as a band name. Old Amica, which could be translated to “old friend”, refers to the two members as well as a symbol for people and events that pass by in life. A nostalgic feeling in other words, which is reflected in the music.

You can listen to the album on their site or on Spotify. They also have a Facebook page. Here are two songs from “Debris”:

New Start
Summer Morning Light

Support the artist: Buy “Debris” – on iTunes – on Amazon

Caviare Days released their debut single “The Awakening” last month. The title track shines of references from Mamas and the Papas and Jefferson Airplane from the end of the sixties, while the second track “Allure” feels more experimental and difficult to place in time, though also with psychadelia vibes and a large dose of folk music.

The band consists of the two sisters Lina and Maja Westin backed by a band with drums, violin, keyboards and guitars. The single is a first taste of the debut album, to be released next year. Their name is taken from a quote from F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel “Tender Is the Night”.

Read more on Caviare Days’ site and on Facebook. The single is available on Spotify.

The Awakening

Buy “The Awakening” – on iTunes – on Amazon

Antonia Vai is a singer/songwriter from Stockholm who’s working now on her first full length album. But there are a bunch of  songs to listen to already now; songs recorded mainly by herself and which she publish on her pages in a steady stream.

The influences seem to come from a number of sources, but the most obvious vibe is a dramatic feeling in many songs in the direction of Björk, without exactly sounding like Björk. Mix that with a lot of soul vibes, closer to Erykah Badu, as Antonia describes it herself. I also sense inspiration from folk music; from the latin world, from the US, and some song from the Swedish mellow folk tradition.

You can listen to the songs on her site or on her Facebook page. She also has a frequently updated Youtube channel. Here are two songs:

Don’t Let the Bedbugs Bite
Russian Roulette