I have never really felt for the CD as a physical product. To have the feeling for holding it, looking at it, open and discover it. I have never been anywhere close to the excitement I felt when I finally held a wished-for vinyl in my hands. Nostalgic illusions? Maybe.
And even if it doesn’t explain the big changes in the music industry, it meant that I rather painlessly could lose the plastic in favour of harddrives, memory cards and web streams.

But a couple of months ago, when I got my hands on Pär Edwardson’s CD “Bodybuilding – but with centimetre”, that “hold in a physical album”-feeling awoke. Wisely the ugly transparent plastic plastic cassette had been replaced with a hardboard cover. On the album front the protagonist himself was portrayed in a photo taken in his youth, with hair style and clothes typical from those days. When I opened the album I found a small collection of similar photos from the same era with names below each. “Is that really Kee Marcello? No, surely not, or…” Simply put, a small photo album. On the right there was a pocket containing a folded mini poster. Unfolded it showed me the origin of the album title “Bodybuilding – but with centimetre” and on the back side of the poster, all the lyrics. A mini adventure to sum it up.

It was also an adventure listening through the record. Even though I had listened to Pär Edwardson before, it was somewhat of a surprise for me. I expected a record filled with his great pop songs, late-Beatles-melodic with his special touch and sound, unique in themselves and that really stick in my mind after listening a couple of times. Subtle, satirical lyrics where some frases together with melody form good hooks. And sure, I found those songs, but also a lot more than that: lo-fi blues, hard rock (with Kee Marcello Marcello as guest), a couple of covers (Thunderbolt, Whip It!), interludes, a wiener waltz, long songs, short songs. And also these fantastic pop songs I knew from before. Confusing? Hardly. Instead it formed a whole that I haven’t grown tired of, held together with the feeling Pär Edwardson wanted to convey when he created the album. A real album!

Even if physical containers of music may be on their way out, I do hope that artists continue to create albums. Albums where there is space for more than the most direct songs. Chapters, timebound or not, of the musicians’ artistry which we can read through and come back to and experience. When it comes to Pär Edwardson, I happen to know that he is working on a new album, and I’m grateful for that.

Listen to three tracks from the album “Bodybuilding – but with centimetre?”:

God’s Greatest
Coffee Drops and Lemon Curd
Into the Dark

Visit Pär Edwardson:

Pär Edwardson på Myspace

Pär Edwardson på Allears

All artists presented in here are songwriters and composers also performing their products. Tobbe Möller is a songwriter and a composer who’s performing solely for practical reasons, as he puts it.

There’s something special about Tobbe Möller, something supernatural, maybe even godlike! He may for real be the best songwriter in the world, but I’m not sure he’s aware himself.

I see Tobbe like a fairy dressed in an armour you don`t easily penetrate. But just as Tinkerbell sprinkles river glitter (or whatever) over people in need, he does the same for his tunes.

His are lyrics that are incredibly strong, clever harmonies and changes of chords, and melodies a raging bull won’t shake off.

Offered here is an early work, “Too Hard to Chew”, aside two later ones where Tobbe worked with other musicians. In “Young Boy In the Far Back Row” he got together with Lasse Söhr and singer Isak Strand.
Other recent collaborations include names as Pär Edwardson, Aurgrunn and Pär Enqvist.

Early works by Tobbe Möller maintain a feel of old rock/punk music with pumping Rickenbackers and delightful choirs; do listen to Purple Foxglove on his Myspace-page. Then rapidly switch to Tonårsbarn (Teenage Kid) or “Skakar inte mer” (Shaking No More) and enjoy the breadth of the man!

If you’re interested in the music or want to work with the originator, visit his Myspace page.

Now do enjoy the songs presented:
Lose Your Head
Young Boy In the Far Back Row
Too Hard to Chew

Visit Tobbe Möller:
Tobbe Möller på Myspace

Keep cool,
Jeppe

(translated by Aurgrunn)

“Heaven Sent”, the new album from Victoria Lagerström, is fascinatingly beautiful and filled with different emotions. It strikes me how big the sound is, even though the arrangements are basic.

It also strikes me how carefully each song has been produced, where each track has it’s own characteristics and feeling. The arrangement is created after the principle “less is more” and guided by what the song has to offer, and not according to a common band setup.
And on top of this, Victoria’s soft soul-jazz voice, like a young to midaged Joni Mitchell.

I’m sure you’ll understand what I mean when you listen to the songs below. “Heaven Sent”, the title track, has a latino feeling, a soft jazzy cornet, a kind of desert ambience which leads into a jazz-pop chorus, like a reply to a later Mecano.

And then there is the wonderful “If I Say Yes” where the jazz influence feels stronger and the relationship with Joni Mitchell shines through even brighter. A soft beautiful saxophone guides the listener from the first chorus to the end.

Listen and enjoy:

Heaven Sent
If I Say Yes

Visit Victoria:

Victoria Lagerström’s home page

Victoria on Myspace

It just happened that way that I’ve seen Jamin Pirnia perform live four times during the last 8 months. Predictable? Boring? Well, nothing could be further from the truth.

Jamin is an artist that is in constant movement. Actually I think he is uncapable of repeating himself. I have spoken to him a couple of times before concerts, and listening to him describing the concert, feels like listening to an artist preparing his next painting. For Jamin each scene is like a unique canvas ready to be filled with new colours, feelings, people and music.

The show changes and develops right in front of my eyes. On one concert he is alone with his piano, the next time he has also a sampler and a friend playing a minimoog. Then there is a band with three members and suddenly there are ten people on stage with a theatrical act going on in front of the stage. Theater, masks, megaphones but also stillness. He fascinates, provokes and invites you to surprises. Some of the songs may be the same from one concert to another and also in his different incarnations as Transparent Blanche, Jamin Pirnia or Jamin’ with Jamin, but the experience is always new.

Maybe the strongest about Jamin on stage is his presence, his ability to deliver no matter what. It doesn’t matter if there are only ten people in the audience, spread out along the walls of a big concert hall, or if there are hundreds of people on a crowded market square. When he looks up after finishing a song, you can sense in his smile that sweet happiness and satisfaction of having been given the opportunity to play right here and now for you.

Enjoy his music by listening to some tracks from his project Transparent Blanche:

Lipstick Killer
Lime
Song of Despair
Ak/not 47

Jamin Pirnia, solo:

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDJUeTd0iD0

Jamin Pirnia and Transparent Blanche’s web site

Transparent Blanche on Myspace

/Pär

I really wish that I had experienced the classical concerts at CBGB in New York. Yes, I know that the club still exists, but I’m talking about the seventies with Ramones, Sex Pistols and Blondie. I also believe that The Headlines would have fit in perfectly there.

If you don’t know the Malmö band The Headlines, I can tell that it’s a band that tours frequently around Europe and that they recently have released their debut album “Plug ‘n’ Play”. They have toured with New York Dolls, The Levellers, Hanoi Rocks, to mention a few, and they started out in 2005!

The Headlines play a fascinating kind of rock, that sometimes can be compared with the early Green Day, and that’s brilliantly mixed with the sound of mandolins and saxophones.

The album is produced by Stry Terrarie (Ebba Grön, Kriminella Gitarrer), and is handled by the german label Radio Rebel Records!

Here you get a taste of the album “Plug ‘n’ Play”, with a few songs you can listen to and download:
All I Need
Let’s Get Together
With No One to Follow
You Gotta Go

Visit the band:
The official home page
On Myspace

(translated by Pär/Blindmen)