Mackaper was created by Markus Hulthén and Per Nyström as a side project to their band The Concretes. They sat down at two organs, jamming forth new song ideas, which then was completed and in the end released on the instrumental album “When All Is Sad and Dawn”, which I wrote about a couple of years ago.

Now the project has grown even more, and the duo has become a quintet, where the two brothers Elias and Ville Krantz now handle the bass and the drums respectively, instead of their computer colleague, and furthermore Gustav Nygren has joined the band with his saxophone. You can listen to the result in the song here below, “Staden vaknar” (“The city awakes”). The title describes the atmosphere well, in this new sound with more depth and warmth, with a soft, smooth, saxophone that paints new textures in the soundscape. The song is taken from their upcoming album”Mot ljusare tider”, which will make us stop and catch our breath in the middle of the Christmas stampede on December 19th.

Mackaper on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp

Aerials, Christoffer Franzén’s music project I wrote about in Spring, is underway with the debut album “Lights & Motion”; an album which he says will be full of arena sounds and filmic moments. He has uploaded a first taste from the album, the song “Home”, which is just about that: a song with film vibes with a slow build-up to an arena crescendo.

Aerials on Facebook – on Soundcloud

Last week I told you about Kvartetten Raekan and their philosophy of creating their own country, which you reach by listening to their music. Another band that has embraced this idea and created this is Lymland. The name of the country is of course Lymland, and on the cover of their debut album “Ensamtidsroman”, which was released in the end of September, we can even study a map of this island.

In Lymland it feels harmonic and quiet, but also a little lonely sometimes. The pace is slower than here in our world, when we quietly stroll along to some well-chosen organ or clarinet melodies, or lie down in the grass watching the sky filled with large cotton-like clouds, to the tones of a guitar figure. It’s not a carefree world, though, which we’re reminded of as disharmonic tension intrudes in”Mannen med rök i handen” (“The man with smoke in his hand”) or the only vocal track “Söndagstråkigt” (“Sunday boredom”), or as the beast rages in “Räven och hägern” (“The fox and the heron”). It’s an album you can escape to when life goes a little too fast and we need to think about what we’re doing.

Lymland was created by the duo Sonja Perander (If They Ask Tell Them We’re Dead) and Jerker Kaj (Scraps of Tape). The album was recorded during a few days in December last year, with the help of the singer in the band Solander, Fredrik Karlsson.

Lymland on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp – on Bandcamp

Långsam glöd
Mannen med rök i handen

Here’s a song from the upcoming album “The Straw Boys” with electro duo Fort Fairfield, “Danziger Strasse”. A soundtrack to an ordinary day on Danziger Strasse, in Berlin I guess. It obviously feels quite pleasant to walk along that street.

Fort Fairfield on Facebook – Spotify – Soundcloud

No, it’s not a headline from the evening papers (Family Reunion and Death Homicide). It’s actually two artists that call their solo projects  Släktträff and Dödsmord respectively, and who have choses to release a split-EP together. The EP is called “Till allt som varit dött” and can be heard on Soundcloud. And their music do fit together well, with Släktträff’s instrumental music and Dödsmord’s lo-fi indie. You can listen to a song from both artists here below.

Släktträff was started by Alexander Sjöstedt in 2008 and has so far released two albums and an EP, which you can listen to on Spotify. You can also find Släktträff  on Facebook and on Soundcloud.

Dödsmord has been around since 2009 directed by Oskar Östby. He says that it’s “an attempt to test and show if  the beautiful can be that disgusting ugly, and the ugly to be the most beautiful.” Follow Dödsmord on Facebook and on Soundcloud.

Släktträff – Buzz
Dödsmord – Hanna från Marieberg