"Music For The Statues of Gothenburg is a piece written for three statues along Kungsportsavenyn, the main street of Gothenburg. It is an observation on the sonic landscape of the city and a question about the usage rights of the public space." Composed by Andreas Bygdell (The Touch) and performed by Martin Molin (Detektivbyrån). More: https://felsteg.com/project/music-for-the-statues-of-gothenburg/
Ex-Detektivbyrån member Martin Molin is going the opposite direction of Dödsvarg and is composing the music for the upcoming show "The Famous Swedish Project" (emphatically "not theater, not performance and not dance, but everything at once"), to be performed by PLAY Teaterkonst and set to premiere on February 6 in Göteborg. More info at Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/playteaterkonst
Apparently it now takes me a full week to dig out of the hole I got myself into by taking time off in December. So while it might not feel quite so timely anymore, I'm going to try and take the time to highlight a few of my top 10 mentions over the next little while before getting back into the Sisyphean task of keeping up with what's new. First: Dödsvarg. The band initially spurred my curiosity because they/he is ex-Detektivbyrån, but when you combine that with the descriptor "a mixture of Meshuggah and Skitsystem," I knew I absolutely needed to hear it. The album "Livet är en dödsorsak" doesn't disappoint either -- the music is crusty, mathy and totally pissed, but they missed one very important note of reference: besides Skitsystem and Meshuggah, Dödsvarg also reminds me a lot of "It's me god"-era Breach. This is not just a good thing, it's a great thing. Don't let Dödsvarg stay overlooked and underappreciated!
"Livet är en dödsorsak", the new album from ex-Detektivbyrån act Dödsvarg, is out now and available on Spotify, even in the US: https://open.spotify.com/album/4q10wZrTe2clF4Gl7H32rc
has posted an unmastered sample clip of tunes from the upcoming Dödsvarg record "Livet är en dödsorsak": https://www.dodsvarg.se/dodsvarg_sample.mp3
Turns out that the Skitsystem and Meshuggah comparisons weren't far off the mark at all, despite the Detektivbyrån connection.
has announced the signing of Dödsvarg, a new act featuring ex-member(s?) of Detektivbyrån that they describe as "a mixture of Meshuggah and Skitsystem," so uh, yeah -- don't go expecting anything like what came before.
Great news: according to Musik enligt Jerry, Martin Molin of Detektivbyrån is working on a solo album.
Detektivbyrån, one of Sweden's best acts of the last decade IMHO, are sadly calling it quits: https://www.detektivbyran.net/
They will be missed.
If you didn't manage to grab a copy of the excellent and long-sold out compilation #2 featuring Erik Enocksson, ASS, Detektivbyrån and Gösta Berlings Saga, the latter group is now offering their two contributions to the collection as a free download: https://www.gostaberlingssaga.se/gbs2/2010/04/from-obscurity-to-free-download/
As for the other GNR comps, I've still got a few copies and they are all very recommended!
Here's the playlist for this week's radio show Sirius XMU:
01. TALK 1
02. The Goner - Within the hour
03. Moto Boy - The heart is a rebel
04. Detektivbyrån - Hemvägen
05. TALK 2
06. Valkyrien Allstars - Hvis jeg var deg
07. Tobias Hellkvist - Patience
08. Scarred By Beauty - We swim
09. [ingenting] - Tack
10. TALK 3
11. I'm From Barcelona/Daviel Lindlöf - Lower my head
12. Monazno - Yes we can't
13. Silver - The white logic
14. Eskatol - Siste dans
15. TALK 5
16. Murmansk - The surgical assistant
17. Dyno - Destroy! Destroy!
18. Folkvang - Folkvangs första
19. C.Aarmé - Angola (Princess version)
20. TALK 5
21. Abhinanda - Junior
Reminder: my show airs every week on Sundays and Mondays at 11pm ET on Sirius XMU. That's channel 26 on Sirius, 43 on XM and 831 for DirecTV subscribers.
The good folks at MIC Norway sent me a big box of CDs earlier this week as part of their "Listen to Norway" music promotion program, so to oblige them I will attempt to do some sort of weekly feature on one of the contents therein. I'm planning on listening to most of it anyway, so why not give it focus? Now as for the types of discs they sent me, there's a good selection of pop, rock, indie and metal stuff that I've either heard before or at least somewhat familiar with, so I decided to jump into the other stuff first. I know some Norwegian jazz, mostly through artists affiliated with or , and we'll get to those in coming weeks, but it's definitely the folk music that intrigued me the most. As regular readers should know by now, I love traditional Scandinavian folk, especially when it's done in contemporary fashion ala Detektivbyrån, but I'm also quite fond of the trad stuff, it's just that I barely know where to start with it so let us consider this to be a mutual exploration. There's a lot of folk music out there and I've listened to a damn lot of Hardanger fiddle this week and while I couldn't begin to tell you the history of the style or anything about the various regional variations, I know what I like and Valkyrien Allstars are a group I definitely can get into. According to the liner notes of their self-titled debut (2007), the trio got their start as the house band at The Valkyrien Restaurant in Oslo though they definitely seemed to have moved beyond that now, having been nominated for a Norwegian Grammy and toured Japan (and released a new album "To måner", which I do not have yet). Musically speaking, they are at their essence, a Hardanger fiddle trio, though they do mix it up by adding a few extra instruments and vocals. But what I like best about them is their energy and enthusiasm, a similar trait I heard in Swedish act Hedningarna, the band that first got me interested in Nordic folk. "Å gjev du batt meg" is one of the group's mellower tracks, but I just love the vocal on it, especially frontwoman Tuva Livsdatter Syvertsen's rough-edged tone. It reminds me of Hajen/Jaw Lesson a bit, in fact they even kinda look similar as far as hairstyle is concerned. Anyhow, it's those little cracks at the edges that make it, and that's why I'm sharing this song today.
Expect more folk discoveries and other new (to me) tunage in weeks to come.
Valkyrien Allstars - Å gjev du batt meg
In America an artist like Sofia Karlsson would be playing nightly to 10s of fans at cafés and coffeehouses around the country, probably living out of her VW Van and ekeing out a (very) modest living. In Sweden, her albums go gold and she plays to packed theaters. As I've long stated, one of the best aspects of Scandinavian music is the deep appreciation of folk tradition; Sofia Karlsson is living proof, as are deserving upstarts such as Detektivbyrån. "Visa från Kåkbrinken" is Sofia's latest single off her album "Söder om kärleken" and of course it is pure excellence. It reminds me a bit of Dolly Parton's semi-recent bluegrass jaunts ("Little sparrow", "The grass is blue", etc.), 'cept a bit more pared down and intimate. Similar 'grass vibe though f'sure, but without the dense vocal harmonies. You can't have it all I guess, and hey, sometimes that more personal feel is better anyway.
I post a lot of music on this site that I'm fully aware has no broad appeal. Not so with this! If you can't hang with a little Sofia Karlsson, you're dead to me.
Sofia Karlsson - Visa från Kåkbrinken
Here's a second preview clip from the upcoming Detektivbyrån "Live in Stockholm" DVD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZbXy-XE-Ug
The band will also be touring extensively this fall and you can get dates here: https://www.detektivbyran.net/worldofdetektivbyran/liveshows.html
