It’s been rather quiet here this week, but I’m going to start it all up again. There’s loads of good Swedish music pouring into my inbox this year, and during the five years I’ve been posting here on Meadowmusic, I’ve never seen anything like it. I’m starting today with the excellent new album from Mackaper, “Mot ljusare tider”.

I wrote about this organ duo, which now has become a quintet, in November, when they tempted us with the song “Staden vaknar” from the new album. In the end of December the record was released, and it was just as great as I was hoping for. With the new members and where the drum machines have been exchanged for real drums, they feel even closer to their roots in music, to the progressive rock with influences from Swedish folk music from the early seventies. It feels inevitable to think about Bo Hansson as an inspiration while listening, and with their exploration of different ambiences in songs with titles that speak for themselves, I get a certain feeling of listening to a soundtrack, just like in the works of the predecessor. Great folk psych, as they call it themselves. Here below, you’ll find the starting track, “Dimma”.

Mackaper on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp

Dimma

Here’s a song and a video from Elias Krantz, “Young Ends”, taken from his album “Night Ice” which was released in 2011. As the album now is available on vinyl he took the opportunity to draw some attention to it by releasing this video, made by the Mexican artist and illustrator Derzu Campos. They found each other when Elias was traveling around Mexico a couple of years ago, and Elias asked Derzu if he would like to make a video to “Young Ends”, a video that later was recorded in the Mexican mountains. A beautiful illustration of Elias’ instrumental, slightly suggestive progressive rock. Elias is also involved in Mackaper’s new album, which was released on December 19th, an album I will get back to in a little while.

Elias Krantz’ site – on Facebook – on Spotify – on Wimp – on Soundcloud

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

The duo Mackaper consists of the two organ players Markus Hulthén and Per Nyström. In the beginning of February they released their debut album “When All Is Sad and Dawn”.

It’s about instrumental music, where of course the organs are the main attraction, but they are accompanied by strings, drum machines, horns and other instruments. I’m reminded of prog-rock from the seventies but also of minimalistic synth pop, maybe the two strongest influences on the album. But overall it feels quite varied, where elements of jazz and swedish folk melancholy also fit in together with strong melodic themes and a nice atmosphere.

You can find Mackaper on their site or on Myspace. The albumet “When All Is Sad and Dawn” is available on Spotify. Here are a couple of songs from the album:

Spionen
Tale of Tales

Tale of Tales: