Last year I wrote about the Norwegian/Swedish duo Lerin/Hystad and their album “Mount Buzhou“. There they combined their instrumental music with traditional chinese music, including field recordings from a large music summit in China. On the new album they have crossed the water and gone to Japan to get their inspiration.

Like before they have sampled field recordings in the tracks, but this time taken from arcade halls and subway stations in Tokyo and Osaka. This is mixed with vibes of traditional japanese music, jazz, electronica, progressive and experimental rock. It all becomes a fascinating melting pot where the past meets the present, east meets west, the finetuned organic meets the hard, machinelike. It can coexist at one time and in the next moment the other aspect takes over. Well, it is a bit like I can imagine what Japan is like with it’s deep roots in their own traditions living side by side with the modern society and the influence from the western world. An album with an amazing creativity, abundance of details and a large span of music. Here are two songs:

Lerin/Hystad on Facebook – on Spotify – on Bandcamp

Billy the Zombie Kid – “The Blessing and the Curse” – EP

Billy The Zombie Kid is a band from Borlänge, who released the debut album “The Blessing and the Curse” a couple of months ago. It contains five songs with a melodic, alternative pop/rock spiced up with electronica, well a bit in the direction of The Killers. Here’s the title track “The Blessing and the Curse”:

Marigold – “Allt kommer bli bra”

The next band, Marigold is also from Borlänge. A month ago they released the single “Allt kommer bli bra” and last year the excellent EP “Och så kom regnet”. I can sense a part of The Killers here also, but here more in the direction of synth pop, as a melancholic, a bit eighties-like ambience sweeps into the room. Here’s the latest single together with “City Farewell” from the EP:

Sisilisko – “Waldeinsamkeit” – EP

I wrote about the duo Sisilisko, Albin Boman and Peter Engqvist, in the Autumn. Now they are back with the EP “Waldeinsamkeit”, an EP where their doom-folk music runs further into the dark woods to explore the mystique, nature and darkness. Here’s “The Woods” from the album:

Lerin/Hystad – “Mount Buzhou” – album

On the 25th of April the Swedish/Norwegian duo Simon Torssell Lerin and Bettina Hvidevold Hystad are releasing their debut album “Mount Buzhou”. The album title is taken from the name of a mountain in Chinese mythology, a mountain said to have supported the heavens.

The Chinese tradition also run through the music. In 2010 the duo travelled to Kunming in the south west of China, where over 1000 retired musicians gathered each day to play traditional Chinese music together. During two months they recorded this music, and later blended these recordings with their own instrumental music. Postrock and progressive rock meet Chinese traditions which create a very special atmosphere. Here’s one of the six songs on the album:

Read an interview with Lerin/Hystad on Alltformusik.se (in Swedish)