People have created fantastic film music throughout the years. I think it’s strange that there’s so few collaborations between musicians/artists and movie creators. A director I spoke with the other day explained to me that he always set aside a rather large sum of money for the music of the movie. But when the movie project takes longer time than expected and other events, unaccounted for, need to be taken care of, this sum of money is used, and compromises have to be done.

I want to tell you about Hans Lundgren, 26 years old, whose music makes me shiver of well-being. Here he describes how he started making film music:

“For me the interest for film music started already at the age of 7 when I used to rush to the TV to be able to see the intro to “Dallas”. I loved the music and how it interacted with the moving pictures. But it wasn’t until I was 15 that I became aware of film music at a deeper level.

After playing and singing several years, I started study music on high school in Skellefteå, and it was there that I seriously started composing music inspired by movies. After that followed studies in composition on Skellefteå Music College, Framnäs Folkhögskola, Musikhögskolan i Piteå, film science at Luleå Tekniska Universitet, and now in Stockholm at KMH (Royal College of Music in Stockholm) and DI.

This is the first time that they have created a film music program on a higher level of education in Sweden. The education is divided more or less with half of the time at KMH and half of the time at DI. The theoretical parts at KMH and the practical parts at DI. And just like with all the other students at the movie department at DI, 4 students are admitted every two years. That is, 4 directors, 4 producers, 4 dubbing editors, 4 film editors, 4 screenwriters, 4 photographers, and now this year also 4 film composers.

As a first project at DI we were assigned to write music for four short films. Every team has their own movie that is supposed to work both as a story that stands for itself and also in a context together with the other three movies. All four films are spun around the same central event which binds the movies together, but from the different perspectives of four people and their unique experience of the situation. It has been a very interesting and fun process to be a part of. My first meeting with the short film I was to compose to, was at a spotting session where I, together with the director, the producer and the others, watched a raw cut of the film where we started discussing how, when and what function the music should have in the movie. When should the music start/end? What’s the emotional style? What’s the musical style, and so on?

After that, I watched the movie a couple of times, without starting to compose anything, just to absorb the movie. It was easier to get to the core of the story then. For this project I made a couple of different versions of the music, before we found something that felt right from an emotional and dramaturgical perspective. We have recently finished the project and made the final cut of the movie. That’s when the dialogue, the music and the effects are mixed together to create a good sound picture for the movie. The premiere will be in November.

Soon the recording of the next project starts, and I am looking forward to being part of telling a story in a musical and dramatic way that drags people into the story. Finally I would like to say that I really hope that this education will help to lift Swedish film music, and that people who want to write music for films can have a place to meet, develop and work together with the professional film makers of the future.”

Here’s a couple of tracks from Hans’ production:

Resan mot ljuset
Death Is Not the End

Do you want know more about Hans? Here is his site.

There you read that he has arranged and orchestrated “Sjökor och Stekare” for the Umeå Symphony Orchestra, that he has been played in P2 (Swedish national radio channel), and that TV4 has shown his short film “Att återvända” (“To come back”). Just the images on his site are worth a visit. Beautiful!
And of course you can listen to his music.

– with real hip hop muscles

He likes to ride the bike against the wind, eat meatballs and he likes soft nights at home. And maybe it’s there he finds all inspiration to his songs. Because this mr Fredric is the face of productivity. He releases songs all the time in a high pace.

This guy from Jakobsberg in Stockholm moves smoothly among the hip hop elite in Sweden and delivers romantic themes or philosophical speculations about life and love.

This is how he presents himself in a clip:

And listen to this: Fredric feat. Frida Muranius and Mattias Welin. It’s a little like Me Tarzan and You Jane, and I fully love it. A warm-up party song that should be a hit among the winedrinking mothers of bothersome teenagers. It’s an enigma to me that it’s not constantly played on all the Swedish radio stations, as it’s a smashing superhit bomb according to me:

Fantasi (with Frida and Mattias)

Heres another song from Fredric:

Du kom du gick

Fredric is now working on his new site, where he will upload 19 new songs, all free for download! So keep a look at Fredric’s site.

In the meantime you can visit him on Myspace where you for example can listen to a couple of cool collaborations with Melina and Anthon.

The producer

Some people may know him as Jonas Wickman, others as Bordun. When I first came in contact with his music and his production, it was like living on a flat earth and suddenly realise that it’s actually a globe. Jonas’ strange sound landscapes and emotional dimensions, opened me up and confronted me. Maybe not so much the music itself, but the feelings that grew inside when I listened; I was at the same time freightened and fascinated.

And I believe this is Jonas’ strength; the buildup of emotional atmospheres. He says that he has been living on the so called soft side of life. Art, philosophy, food and pleasure. And of course also music! And it all adds up in some way here. It’s artistry in the shape of music.

I think that Jonas really shows how important the producer role is. To build these sound backgrounds and sceneries behind the artist. A good producer can lift a mediocre artist right up in the sky, but above all, a good producer makes the artist and the music come out.

Listen here to a collaboration between Aurgrunn, Miss Allena, and Jonas:

Storm

And another collaboration with the artist Tobbe Möller:

Sanity

And here is a gem from his own works:

När kommer du igen

Last spring Jonas released an album, in a producer collaboration with Robert Wahlström/Jonas Färnlöv, called Umami (Plugged Records)

Among the participating artists were Freddie Wadling, Caroline af Ugglas, Desmond Foster, Ardis, Katarina Niklasson, Safiye Färnlöv, T-Root and Caroline Wennergren; artists that all share the same passion as the producer trio. That is, art and music.

Good In Colours:

Listen to Umami on Myspace and visit their site.

Buy the record on CDon and ITunes

Music through the fingertips

Intrumental music talks to me in quite a different way than when it’s accompanied by vocals and lyrics. It flows more freely through my ear canals and creates a contact with my emotional self. And Tomeu’s music makes my argentinian blood swell in lustfulness and makes me homesick. ‘Cause deep down, there lives an acoustic guitar.
In Tomeu’s music I can hear influences of flamenco, classical music, jazz, blues and world music. Originally he’s from Mallorca where he started his guitar lessons with Damià Timoner.

After a short jump to Barcelona he continued his education with the grammy winner David Rusell, and with the highly regarded Manuel Granados, and his assistant David Leiva. After this he travelled to Sweden, where he’s now working on his upcoming album with the drummer Robert Ikiz and the bass player Kristian Lind. The producer is Josep Umbria.

Solely for Meadow Music he has mixed down two tracks, but tells me to point out that these are not finished tracks, just a taste from the upcoming record. The album will be finished by next summer.

Leia’s Song
A Time In Barcelona

Listen more on his Myspace page

Music+Play = Great creativity

I am in love. I fell head over heels for this sweet lady. My first thought was:
– What is this?
My second was:
– Geez, this is SOO cool!

This is truly creativity on a high level. Musical jumps, mixed with presentations of sounds that caresses and shakes you at the same time. Agnes’ ability to step outside the box entirely is admirable – to think that more artists would have that courage, and ability.

To me, Agnes’ music is a huge vitamin injection, a virtual “happy pill” that picks me up and makes me happy. Throw in Agnes in the Parliament and make all politicians happy – her love of sounds and words inspire and is truly contagious! A true and great artist.

She describes herself like this:

“I usually perform with a sort of melodic fairy tales, told in the made up language “sprak”. This language is a mixture of forgotten dialects. Words with a bitter, sweet and sometimes salty aftertaste. All within a frame of “sprinkle soundscape”. To abeat of percussion-like piano playing.

Here’s the place to download two of her creations:

Freezie Froze
Dammtussmonster

Curious? Hear more? Visit Agnes Mercedes on Myspace

Want to know more about her? Go to her web site Ordfrosseri (in swedish)