Meadow Music

The two composers and sound artists Stefan Klaverdal and Håkan Lidbo have put their minds together and created the album “Contemporary Composers play Love ballads vol. 1”. Here they take on some of the most popular love ballads from the eighties and the nineties, ballads that here come out with a completely different shape and meaning.

They write that they both have a fascination for bad taste and the cultural codes which mark the lines between pop culture and fine culture. Here they want to see if they can distill drops of darkness or artistic depth from these classics which we’ve heard som many times before. They have worked with the complete original recordings, which they have time-stretched, chopped, distilled, added effects to, well, in many ways transformed the songs into something different. And the songs do become interesting again. When they succeed they extract distinctive characteristics from the tracks and turn them into a completely new mood or ambience. Here are two of my favourites where Bryan Adams’ love declaration no longer sound that innocent, and Whitneys Houston’s long tones become a eerie and haunting. Listen to the entire album on their Soundcloud page.

Stefan Klaverdal’s site – on Facebook – on Spotify

Håkan Lidbo’s site – on Spotify

Even though the paint from the debut album “På riktigt” is still wet, Låtsaspoeten is already on his way with the follow-up. It’s called “Nattmusik för människor” and he has promised to deliver it in the early Autumn, with plenty of time before the Winter darkness gets a hold of us again. The first taste “Hoppet kan va hopplöst” was released today, and he says that we can expect more extracts from the album in the time to come.

Låtsaspoeten på Facebook – på Spotify

Last year I was fascinated by her voice when I wrote about Lilla Milo and presented soul songs that have etched themselves into my mind. Now Cosima Lamberth focuses on her soul career and has released her debut EP “Head In the Clouds” with four songs during June.

I think it’s an exquisite record with tracks that each one has it’s own character and where Cosima gets to show her vocal range as a soul singer. She can be impulsive as in “Still I Know” where she pulls out the last breath of each phrase and delivers them with an inescapable urgency , or she can expose a naked voice without anything that dims the path to your inner emotions as in the longing, neo soul vibing “Come Back”.

The arrangements are also wonderful, filled with jazz drenched harmonies which vary between the dreamy to the slight melancholic. It feels warm, organic and radiates retro vibes as well as a breath of contemporary, creative soul. Listen here to two of the songs from the EP:

Cosima on Facebook – on Spotify

Let’s visit The Moniker’s pop factory again. On his way to his album he has released some more excellent tracks, where he as usual takes a bite here and there of pop history. “I Wait” is his own favourite from the album, he says, and the song that started the entire project. I am quite fond of  “How?” a glam rock-vibing song with T. Rex guitars, Bowie harmonies and a dramatic refrain with Beatles-choirs.

The Moniker’s site – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp

The quartet Astronaut In Cyberspace is a new acquaintance who released their debut EP a couple of weeks ago. I’d like to call it psychadelic folk music, suggestive, slow and with quite special-sounding, draggy vocals. It’s an ambitious project which doesn’t stop with the music, but also includes art and music videos to all the tracks. Listen to a selection of the songs here:

Astronaut In Cyberspace site – on Facebook – on Spotify