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 

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

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

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”)

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