Debut albums are always interesting. The sense of something that has been evolved for years… Erased and restarted. Anxiety and joy. Letting go of a dear friend. Showing the rest of the World what you are.
Horse Dance from Swedish Josefin Öhrn + The Liberations is no exception. This is an album that will keep you at your feet. The soundscape with all its darkness and electronic emotions is purely magnetic. I was hooked from the first note in ”Dunes” down til it fades away in ”Talk”.
This is an album that has this genuine feel of depth, integrity and overwhelming emotions. Josefin Öhrns voice must have been meant to do this, for ever.
‘Horse Dance’ was released on Ltd colour vinyl, CD and DL on 6th November 2015 (Rocket Recordings).
• Two years ago Troels Abrahamsen sat down in front the piano at home, after years of writing his songs on the computer.
”Since my childhood the piano has had a central role in my life. Therefore it was a success to be back at the piano and have direct contact with an instrument again. For me it became an opportunity to create something new and start over again”, says the great Dane.
EXEC is Troels Abrahamsen new solo project and The Explanatory Gap makes for a truly captivating first single. It is taken from forthcoming album The Limber Real, due for release on February 12, 2016.
This is Antony & the Johnson meeting John Grant having coffee with Tvärvägen drinking beer with Broken Twin walking with Angel Olsen listening to Possessed by Paul James. Analogue music straight from the heart, a Nordic psalm we believe in.
”Where do these white chalk lines come from, that separate us as we run, around this track…” Let this one sink in, folks.
The Yawpers are a three-piece rock and roll band from Denver, Colorado. Check out their brand new song Burdens! The band just signed to Bloodshot records and are definitely moving on up to the Creme Brulees of the rock n rola community. New album American Man is out on the streets October 30. Keep it close!
Our big time favorite Swedish americana crooner Daniel Norgren is back with new album The Green Stone – released today. The man really found a sound that echoes of eternity. It’s gut-wrenching och filled with …soul. It’s bare bone beautiful. Try new song I Waited For You.
We had the good fortune of meeting Joe Pug yesterday in Gothenburg, Sweden. He’s on tour and played a great gig at Bar Kom. The ending, when the band left stage and strolled down onto the floor singing in the small audience was enchanting. Thanks for the magic, Joe!
We asked for some of Pug’s darlings and got this:
• Pod:The Moment with Brian Koppelman: ”In this program, screenwriter Brian Koppelman interviews artists and business leaders that inspire him. Specifically, he talks to them about how they handled certain crucial ”inflection points” in their lives. That is, he wants to know why successful people process the high and low points of their careers differently than the rest of us. Start with the interview he does of Seth Godin and move on from there.”
• Music: ”Warm Enemy” by Christopher Paul Stelling: ”I had the pleasure of playing the Paradiso in Amsterdam with this American songwriter. We swapped records after the show and I found myself returning to this tune. His guitar playing is a personal, nylon-string take on John Fahey and Joseph Spence that is absolutely gripping.
• Book:The Remains of the Day, Kazuo Ishiguro:”I read this classic of modern fiction on the flight over to Europe this summer. Told from the first-person perspective of a mid-20th century English butler – stay with me! – it explores the act of relinquishing the notion that your individual life had meaning beyond your own private joys and sorrows. The narrator, Stevens, spends the book reflecting on a career that he spent in the service of an aristocrat whom he considered a ”great” man. As the book unwinds though, he begins to question whether or not his employer was indeed great and therefore whether or not he himself spent a life doing meaningful work. This is a short, wonderful read.”
• All the way from Portland, Oregon: Blitzen Trapper and their new album All Across This Land. It’s a divine alt-country lecture, class is dismissed.
You dig classic rock radio; Eagles, Jackson Browne, Springsteen, Mellencamp, the americana songs of Neil Young? Then, this is a shoe in. You are welcome.
• Holly Macve is Bella Unions latest signing. A true godess of country dark songs. She also opens for John Grant on his upcoming tour. Asked why, Mr Grant stated: ”When I heard her voice the decision was made. Very simple.”
Bella Union boss Simon Raymonde says: “Little is known of Holly other than she is a 20 year old from Yorkshire who appeared out of nowhere in Brighton late last year. I had a tip-off to go to a basement bar where she was playing. In a room full of beery boys chatting across all the music beforehand, the minute Holly opened her mouth the room fell silent. Hers is a rare gift.”
We let her song speak for her, the beautiful fireside cowboy tune: The Corner Of My Mind.
• Philadelphia-based Americana group John Byrne Band are releasing their brand new record. Led by Dublin native John Byrne, with influences ranging from The Chieftains to Planxty to Bob Dylan, this is something you wanna hear out.
On this LP, John’s band features members of Amos Lee and Calexico and his lyrics is about turning bad stuff around. Check out first single Dirty, Used Up, Chewed Up, Screwed Up Love, a defiant folk-rock song that echoes John Hiatt and Lucinda Williams.
• Singer/songwriter Kristofer Åström from Luleå is back after three years of silence. New album The Story of a Heart’s Decay got the 70-vibe we adore, a glimpse of long highways, packs of cigarettes and lukewarm beer.
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”I’ve always had songs in me, never had a writer’s block. I really wanted every song on this record to be better than everything I’ve done before”, Kristofer says.
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He nailed it. The album was recorded live in Gothenburg and all involved got guide lines to follow: No instruments or microphones manufactured after 1978 was to be used. The aim: An old sound, without sounding old. Old but new.
