Meadow Music

Petter Lindhagen calls his instrumental one man band Tired Tape Machine. The name is taken from an album by Smog from 1990, as Petter thought that his first album “Somewhere Safe” sounded a little bit like a tired old tape recorder.

Recently he released the album “Between Raindrops”, a quite pleasant instrumental experience. It has a filmic vibe, and I easily play images in my mind as I listen. He dives in and out of different genres and mixes them, but without being difficult to access. No, this is very easy to absorb and sink into, with melodies and soft ambiences to lean back on. A diverse album but with a very personal touch.

You can listen to the album and follow Tired Tape Machine on Facebook. “Between Raindrops” is also available on Wimp.

Between Raindrops
Plastic Smile 

Petter Lindhagen calls his instrumental one man band Tired Tape Machine. The name is taken from an album by Smog from 1990, as Petter thought that his first album "Somewhere Safe" sounded a little bit like a tired old tape recorder. Recently he released the album "Between Raindrops", a quite pleasant instrumental experience. It has a ...

The band name Aerials was invented when Christoffer Franzén was considering different words that described the music that was inside his head: Airy, space, cinematic, melodic. The word Aerials popped up and he felt that it had just the right touch for what he wanted to express.

The music he then produced does feel a lot like he described it to himself. There’s an airy sound with post rock vibes often running for grand crescendos. He alternates between instrumental songs, that certainly could fit well in movies, and songs with vocals. He tells that sometimes a melody comes to him and sometimes not, and when it does he sees himself as an involuntary singer.

You can listen to his music on Aerials’ Soundcloud page or on the Facebook page. Here is the first song he released:

Dream Away

The band name Aerials was invented when Christoffer Franzén was considering different words that described the music that was inside his head: Airy, space, cinematic, melodic. The word Aerials popped up and he felt that it had just the right touch for what he wanted to express. The music he then produced does feel a lot ...

Behind the artist name Morris i motljus we find Henrik Ivarsson. In the Autumn he released the EP “Morris i motljus”, seven instrumental songs, which directly transfered me to the movies. There are alternating bombastic rock orchestral works and softer, more ambient tracks, like it was made for an epic adventure on the big screen.

A couple of years ago Henrik read a newspaper article with the headline “Jag fruktade att de hade ätit Morris” (“I feared that they had eaten Morris”), a story about an old lady who was afraid that the fox had taken her cat. During summer 2010 he came up with the idea that he would compose music for the story, thereby also starting to realize his dream of creating music for film.

“Jag fruktade att de hade ätit Morris” was only a project name from the start, but soon after he had released the music on the net, it de facto became his artist name. As he never was comfortable with that name, he took the opportunity to change it before this release.

You can listen to and download the EP for free on his Bandcamp page and you can also find him on Facebook. Here’s the opening track “Drömmar är som vackrast innan de går i uppfyllelse” (“Dreams are most beautiful before they come true”:

Drömmar är som vackrast innan de går i uppfyllelse

Behind the artist name Morris i motljus we find Henrik Ivarsson. In the Autumn he released the EP "Morris i motljus", seven instrumental songs, which directly transfered me to the movies. There are alternating bombastic rock orchestral works and softer, more ambient tracks, like it was made for an epic adventure on the big screen. A couple ...

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”)

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 ...

I’ll continue today with more instrumental music, but of a different character, with Broken Boys’ new album “Heat and White”. Here it’s about dub, electronica, samples and a rather dark, urban atmosphere.

The album gives an impression of being carefully crafted and feels like an art collage of music interwoven into a whole. A strong debut from the Malmö band where Olof Persson tells us about the band name that he once saw it sprayed over a wall in Mocambique and felt that it went well with their music as being tough and sad at the same time.

Broken Boys have made the album available on their Bandcamp page, where you can listen and download it for free. You’ can also find the band on Spotify and on Facebook.

A C# (E F#)

Support the artist: Buy “Heat and White” on iTunes

I'll continue today with more instrumental music, but of a different character, with Broken Boys' new album "Heat and White". Here it's about dub, electronica, samples and a rather dark, urban atmosphere. The album gives an impression of being carefully crafted and feels like an art collage of music interwoven into a whole. A strong debut ...

Conny Olivetti is a productive artist. In April we could listen to the album “Strategems”, which I wrote about, and now in November he released his next thematic album, “Edgeland”.

As before it’s about instrumental electronica, ambient but yet containing melodic parts that make me think of Jarré and Vangelis. He brings us to “Edgeland”, which for me becomes a journey into the future and away to a city on the edge of the civilization. Like science fiction in other words, and like all good SF, it also hints at the world we’re living in.

So the music seemlessly takes me through this somewhat cold and hard city, a city full of details, voices and activities. And at the same time a glimpse of eternity.

Conny Olivetti is an alter ego for Leif Franzén, and since I was curious about the origins of the artist name, I asked him about it:

Conny Olivetti was born in 1980 when I, at fRa-film, started to create music for our own film productions. And in order to make the movie credits not too monotone we invented Conny Olivetti as responsible for the music production. Conny is my second name, and our scripts were written on an Olivetti typewriter.

The only incident with the name happened around 1989 when I, during a film editing break at the local Medieverkstan in Västerås, went to buy some food at the pizzeria nearby. The weeks before there had been some kind of nightlife article in the local newspaper, where I had said my name was Conny Olivetti. The pizza baker recognized me from the article and started to ask disturbing questions about my family and so on.

He’s been around since then and it seems he will continue with that

As with all his album releases, “Edgeland” is available for free download and streaming on his Bandcamp page. You can find Conny on his site or on Facebook. He’s already working with his next album, which has the working title “Connections”.

Insights From the Past

Conny Olivetti is a productive artist. In April we could listen to the album "Strategems", which I wrote about, and now in November he released his next thematic album, "Edgeland". As before it's about instrumental electronica, ambient but yet containing melodic parts that make me think of Jarré and Vangelis. He brings us to "Edgeland", ...

Today, two days after the horrible events in Norway, it’s hard to do anything without being reminded of what happened. And words are not enough, they don’t help. Maybe music can help us deal with it as a refuge for our thoughts and feelings. I, for one, like to listen to music without words in situations like this.

Here are a couple of tracks from “Ack du arma barn”, a new album with Släktträff.

Ack du arma barn
Sparka grus

Today, two days after the horrible events in Norway, it's hard to do anything without being reminded of what happened. And words are not enough, they don't help. Maybe music can help us deal with it as a refuge for our thoughts and feelings. I, for one, like to listen to music without words ...

Richard Janson lets us in to view some of his musical creativity. He’s a bass player who also produces music in varying genres. Often it’s about instrumental tracks, which sometimes makes me think about film music. Here below you’ll find a couple of songs and if you’d like to listen to more songs you can visit Richard on Myspace.

Schhhh
Memories

Richard Janson lets us in to view some of his musical creativity. He's a bass player who also produces music in varying genres. Often it's about instrumental tracks, which sometimes makes me think about film music. Here below you'll find a couple of songs and if you'd like to listen to more songs you ...

Fredrik Jonasson has activated his side project Silencio Stampa again and a couple of days ago he released “The Red Album”.

It’s about instrumental electronica and first of all I get retro vibes from the analogue synths and drum machines of the eighties and sometimes even from further back from  Vangelis and his friends during the seventies. Maybe then not so much from the bombastic varieties, but rather from the ambience building kind, with sweeping, beautiful melodies and figures that catch the listener.

A beautifully built album you can listen to by checking out Silencio Stampa’s site. Here’s the opener “The Red Pony”:

The Red Pony

Fredrik Jonasson has activated his side project Silencio Stampa again and a couple of days ago he released "The Red Album". It's about instrumental electronica and first of all I get retro vibes from the analogue synths and drum machines of the eighties and sometimes even from further back from  Vangelis and his friends during ...

After 13 years as a guitarist, DiaVandy heard an electro song for the first time, “NY Excuse” with Justice. He was immediately caught, bought a midi-synth, and more or less quit playing the guitar.

He now produces electronica under the name DiaVandy, and in collaborations such as DVMH, together with Malin Gustafsson. He’s working on an album with a political message, to be released in early Fall, a project that’s called “Democracy” which will involve several guest artists.

You can listen more to DiaVandy on Bandcamp or on Myspace.

Cellardoor
Moonbeat

After 13 years as a guitarist, DiaVandy heard an electro song for the first time, "NY Excuse" with Justice. He was immediately caught, bought a midi-synth, and more or less quit playing the guitar. He now produces electronica under the name DiaVandy, and in collaborations such as DVMH, together with Malin Gustafsson. He's working on ...