A. S. Swanski is now working with a new music project he calls “Deckare”. Each month he releases one or two songs inspired by Swedish crime novels, where he so far has put music to books like “Isprinsessan” (“The Ice Princess”) by Camilla Läckberg and Millennium by Stieg Larsson. It’s not too far from his latest album “Electro Noir”, which I wrote about then, where one of the songs even was a reference to a crime novel he had written himself. I think his own description of the music fits rather well here: “between cinematic krautrock and disturbing synth pop”.

A. S. Swanski’s site for Deckare – home page – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp – on Bandcamp

I wrote about A. S. Swanski’s electro ambient music last year. Now he’s released the album “Electro Noir”, from which you can hear a song here below. It’s a fitting name for the album, which feels like a dark journey through gloomy, hard cities with Orwellian undertones, but also with spots of beauty here and there. A really good and well-made thematic album, which feels filmic and full of images.

The vocal additions and the style place us in Europe and it’s not hard to draw parallels to Kraftwerk. The album cover, though, is a tribute to the New York-based, electronica-pioneers Suicide, according to the artist himself. The first song, “Moscow Hearts”, which you can listen to here below, is referring to a crime novel he has published and you can read more about the song here.

A. S. Swanski is a pseudonymy which was created in 1999 when he was searching for a name which didn’t sound English, but more European in general, without defining from exactly where. He had been playing rock and pop for several years, but wanted to go in a different direction, and created this name.

You can listen to “Electro Noir” on the Bandcamp page, on Spotify or on Wimp. You can follow A. S. Swanski on his site and on Facebook.

Moscow Hearts

A Dutch musician that has moved to Sweden may ring some bells. A. S. Swanski, though, produces music in quite different genres than the late Cornelis did. Here it’s about electronica, of the experimental kind, on the border to ambient, often with industrial vibes and sometimes with a feeling of mystique.

The song here below, “The Assassination”, was largely inspired by the parliament elections in both Holland and Sweden last year, and is a part of an EP with the same title. Presently he’s working on a full length album, to be released later this year. You can follow A.S. Swanski and listen more on his site.

The Assassination