Meadow Music

Monogatari is a band created by Sebastian Ungh. With an open mind for what could be contained in music, he started writing and recording songs in 2007 with the help of instruments from all over the world; old and new, toys and real instruments joined together in the songs and was collected in the debut album “It May Have Seemed Like a Sign of Hope That the Birds Followed Them Out Into the Vastness of the Open Sea”.

A live line-up was formed, which after several changes ended up in a septet that performs using a lot of instruments like banjo, charango, accordion, guitars, drums, bouzouki, violin, ukulele, toy piano, chimes, stylophone, harmonica and percussion in various forms. A few weeks ago the new album “One Step Forward and Two Steps Back?” was released, which is the first one in an album trilogy, to be launched during this year. The records will each have it’s own direction, with this first one having an acoustic, peaceful vibe with a lot of guitars and vaious string instruments. It’s rather naked, with folk-influences from many places and sometimes with a fairytale-ambience to it. Listen to a taste from the album here below.

Monogatari’s site - on Facebook – on Spotify – on Soundcloud

Karin Ström is perhaps mostly known for her own electronica productions from before. After six years of producing in solitude, she felt the need for some company in the studio, which led to a collaboration with the producer Mark Ephraim (A Nighthawk, Sibille Attar, Sofia Knapp). Together with the musicians Kevin Barker (Feist), Parker Kindred (Godspeed You! Black Emperor), and Tyler Wood (Antony & the Johnsons) they recorded the two songs “New York” and “Los Angeles”   in Vibromonk Studios, Brooklyn. She says that these songs are the first songs in a larger project with songs about her relation to various cities.

Karin Ström’s site - on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp – on Soundcloud

High Coast, a band hailing from Malmö, released their debut EP recently. On it you’ll find four tracks with earthy, Americana-vibing acoustic music full of nature poetry. “Talvatis”, the song here below, was earlier released as a single, and got it’s name from a lake in the north of Sweden.

High Coast on Facebook – on Spotify – on Bandcamp

Here’s a piece of cool rock from the band Nocturnal who recently released the album with the same name. “One of a Kind” is the name of the song, a blues and jam rock vibing track, which was also part of the first single from the record.

Nocturnal on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp

Rigas, with Henrik von Euler in the front, released this strong track, “Kungen” (“The King”), some month ago. It’s the second single from the album “Hundra år av vinter” (“Hundred years of winter”), which was released during Spring.

Rigas site – on Spotify – on Wimp

I wrote about YAST, or Youth and Student Travel, already in the first stumbling steps of this blog in 2008. They had just left their hometown Sandviken for Malmö, or at least they were in the process of doing so, and they had a couple of DIY-EP:s in their luggage. Now, five years later, they have just released their debut album, they work with the label  Adrian Recordings and right now they are touring in Europe.

When I listen to the new album it strikes me how well they had defined their music already back then, in the beginning. It’s still this dreamy, light indie pop, with a laidback attitude, a playful naivety and sweet melodies. But of course, they have a bigger sound now, it’s more polished, there are more and smoother vocal harmonies as well as guitar layers and their registry is wider. It’s an album that feels perfect for a summery, cloud-watching day and and album fit for a band that have one foot in the gound where they started and the other foot in a big step towards new destinations.

YAST on Tumblr – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp

In the beginning of the year I presented a taste from Grande Roses’ upcoming album “Disease”. The album was later released during Spring, and with such a excellent collection of  soot-black post rock songs, it would be a sin not to mention it in a post. Not least because of the album’s highlight  ”Radio Heartbreak”, which is probably the best rock track I’ve heard so far this year, and which has totally got stuck in my head. Here it is, together with the video.

Grande Roses’ site - on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp – on Soundcloud

I wrote about Per Sahlströms album “Cross the Line” three years ago. Since then he’s released another album, “Play the part of the random guy”, plus some single songs, where the latest one “Reconstruct Me” was released during Spring. ”Play the part of the random guy” fits pretty well now; with it’s happy, light indie pop with doses of the sunny seventies, latino and dreamy folk pop, it feels refreshingly springlike, and like a good soundtrack for today. The first two songs here below comes from the album.

Per Sahlström on Spotify – on Bandcamp – on Soundcloud

Here’s a great and fun pop track from Faråker, aka Olle Blomström. Sounding like a Ted Gärdestad from Blekinge he reminds us that “Allt som är skit” (“Everything that sucks (in your life)), will go away, sooner or later. If we just tell him about it. The song is his second single on his way to his debut album, which he’s working on right now.

Faråker on Facebook – on Twitter – on Spotify – on Wimp – on Soundcloud

Mattias Oskarsson started his solo project Monorail for real in 2004, with the live debut the year after. In 2011 he released his debut album “Bedroom Recordings” and he’s now working on a follow-up song collection. As a taste of this, he has realesed the single “Here Comes the Drone”, a pop song with a certain hint of  jazz and folk which makes me think of Patrick Rydman, whom I’ve written about here before.

Monorail on Spotify – on Bandcamp