Today we continue with the series The Artist’s Story, which was started in the end of last year. It’s Jeanette Sollén who grabs the relay baton Jon Rinneby left her in his post. Jeanette is now right in the middle of a project with the Italian graphic designers Simone ”SketchThisOut” Massoni & Cosimo Lorenzo Pancini; a calendar is being created month by month, containing a typeface accompanied by a girl, a story and then music created by Jeanette, music she calls Font Pop. Read more about it here below.

Jeanette Sollén and Stuart Dahlquist

There are musicians who have urged me on and on all through their astounding sound universe, and there is music that has taken me out to or maybe rather into emotional spaces I didn’t knew existed before. There are beautiful melodies, ingenious compositions, unique sounds and free thoughts. They have all been important, and I’ve loved to experience them all.

But then there is that music, those musicians, who cut through all your senses. Those whose first fingerings touches your nerve threads, whose first beat make your pulse succumb, those whose language is your language, though it’s full of completely new, lovely and so far unheard words. Those that take you home. In to your inner core, out to the uttermost particle of the universe.

Thankfully there’s a lot of them, as I prefer polytheism. The music may in this context represent a single creational god, but I praise all it’s shapes. I can’t choose, I need them all. Brian Eno, Laurie Anderson, Robert Fripp, Meredith Monk, Kate Bush, Steve Reich, Esbjörn Svensson trio all belong here. Each one of these, and many more (from the classical music, flamenco, punk, jazz, rock and world music) has a chapter in my bible with more or less clean and transformative stories from my reasonably long life, which I would have liked to share with you.

But now I’m going in a somewhat different direction. I’d like to share my joy that gods are still being created, that they’re not only something of the past, but that they continue to stream into our blessed world. That is, unless you’re a fanatic who decide that you’ll stick to the first god that turns you over with it’s creative force. But, as I said, I’m a polytheist, and I have the honour now to present a quite new member of my Pantheon of  soul guides, path finders and power sources: Stuart Dahlquist, Seattle, USA.

When I first meet him it’s as a songwriter and organ player. It’s on a music site where they had started a competition for ”low-track pieces”. I had uploaded a piece myself, “Ripe when yields to gentle pressure”, most for fun, probably because I was restless some late night since I couldn’t play and wake the neighbours, and too lazy to take a walk.

With half an ear I listen through some of the other contributions, still restlessly stomping the floor with my foot, and I click on a track which is called “Thine V 1”. It starts as a simple walk down a G major scale and I become curious. Like Kristian Luuk would have said: “Where are we going?” Who has the guts to start so clean and simple, besides Pärt then maybe, and the power to open up new undanced grounds? Stuart.

I was totally happy. I looked up more about Stuart and found several albums and projects, and the night went along well into the morning in the company of brave, mature, pesonal, unpretentious, playful and generous music from Stuart’s world. Extraordinarily nice.

It shows up that he has made quite a journey through music, especially as a bass player. Some bands/projects from his resumé are Brokaw, Zigenort, Sunvata, Sky Buriel, Sunn, Goatsnake, Burning Witch, Magnaflux and Hungry Crocodiles. At the moment it seems like he’s working primarily with the band Asva and the new project Thine. So here’s a video from Asva, “Birds”, from the album “Presences Of Absences”. Enjoy…

Albums with Stuart Dalquist & Asva:

• Asva & Philippe Petit – Empires Should Burn (2012)
• Presences Of Absences (2011)
• What You Don’t Know Is Frontier (2008)
• Futurist’s Against the Ocean (2005)

A Swedish artist to give some extra attention

I met Evelinn Trouble when she was only 13 years old when we did a couple of jazz concerts together. Her amazing musicality and and voice made a strong impression on me already then, and I understood that she was a musician to be reckoned with in the future. A few years later she hit the music scene in Switzerland (she moved there with her family) and album after album and song after song has astounded me with uniqueness, creativity and musicality. Just recently she released her new album “The Great Big Heavy” (Bakara/ 2013). Here’s a new video with the song “Flowing” from this album.

Check out also the video “Warface”, which you’ll find on the tube. Heavy and cool.

One of my own songs to give some attention to

I started quite early to write music and then started my own pop/rock bands, later turning my attention to more experimental constellations also exploring avant garde, world music and  jazz. But my main efforts in music have been focused on various contemporary music dramatic compositions, choir stuff and EAM. During many years the boxes and folders was filling up with sketches of songs; I didn’t have the time to finish them as I was working on these other large projects. But then last year I got the desire to to do it again: songs. And I was invited to join a fun collaborative project, Chicks & Types, with the two Italian graphic designers Simone ”SketchThisOut” Massoni & Cosimo Lorenzo Pancini.

Simone makes a calendar where each month features a typeface accompanied by a girl;  Cosimo then writes a story about the girl and I write a song to each image and story from the girl’s point of view. I entered the project during the Autumn and now we’re going through the entire calendar from last year, which eventually will be published both as a book and an album with my Font Pop. Here’s my latest contribution, “Patricia”. Mix & mastering Jon Rinneby, Sound of Wool.

Read more on: chicksandtypes.com and on my own site planet-jeanette.com

Besides Chicks & Types I’m currently working with the music to a dance movie I have made together with the dancer Sara Ekman, and I’m also collecting material to another album with my own music.

/Jeanette Sollén

(translated from Swedish)

Today we start a new series of posts here on Meadow Music where artists tell stories about other artists that are special to them in some way; influencing them, as sources of inspiration or for some other reason.
First up is Jon Rinneby from Turn Off Your Television, a band that has released both the new album “Humble Waves” and the EP “Wasted Time” this Autumn. Jon also works with music production and runs the studio Sound of Wool.

Jon Rinneby and Sparklehorse

Already after the first song phrase it felt like I had understood it all, and something inside of me broke. How could music sound so torn but at the same time so beautiful? A bizarre world of ideas is painted before me and confirms how elusive reality can be. It was the first time I listened to Sparklehorse and an existential void slowly started to fill up.

Behind the name Sparklehorse (which really isn’t a regular band, but rather an ongoing musical experiment) you’ll find the creator Mark Linkous. A many-faceted and complicated character, shaped by William Blake’s poetry and Daniel Johnston’s credibility, as well as by early power pop and old country. ”It’s a wonderful life” is Sparklehorse’ third album and the album that turned my own musical journey upside down.

Of course it’s impossible to describe music with words, especially Mark Linkous’ diverse and sometimes inaccessible work. This is music that requires attention and presence. You never know what’s behind the next corner, while it all in a strange way always feels familiar and homely. When I listen to Sparklehorse I always find myself having a perspective from below, often an animal’s perspective, where there’s room for small and uncontrolled emotions. At the same time the willful lyrics leave a lot of space for a free interpretation in a way that it feels untouched each time I listen. But above all, what makes Sparklehorse interesting to listen to and come back to is that the small things and what’s forgotten gets so much attention. Things that at a first glance seems trivial, are allowed to grow and turn into something new and exciting every time.

Mark Linkous has meant a lot to me, both as a songwriter and as a producer, and if there is one thing I’ve learned, it is that it doesn’t need to be perfect to sound good. That is something that I constantly remind myself about when I get stuck in the creative swamps. If a good song is performed on a mouth harp or on a ukulele and it’s still good, then you know you have succeeded.

Favorite album: It’s a wonderful life (2001)

Favorite song: Any song really, but a good start could for example be ”Gold Day” or ”Shade and Honey”

Shade and Honey (Sparklehorse cover by Jon Rinneby)

A Swedish artist to give some extra attention

A rather new and interesting accquaintance is Jeanette Sollén, who writes some kind of quirky and unpredictable pop music. We have recently started a one year long collaboration where she writes songs which I then produce; one song each month is the plan. First up was the song Yves:

Jeanette Sollén – Yves

One of my own songs you should listen to

I seldom get 100% satisfied with my own productions, but if I would pick one of them, the new song ”Soap” feels rather good. I think I have managed to capture a feeling and a sound which feels both old and new at the same time, without being intrusive. ”20 million people” is also a song that other people often come back to and that never feels boring.

Soap (from the EP “Wasted Time”, Turn Off Your Television)

she laid her head
on my chest
as the sun burned
down the west
there’s one thing we still got
this one last dance in this parking lot

Sparklehorse, “Heart of darkness”

/Jon Rinneby