The Pastry Club is presenting a night of (mostly) Danish music at 93 Feet East in London on February 19 with Epo-555 and Jong Pang. More details: https://www.last.fm/event/470263

The nominees for Finland's music industry awards, the Emma-gaala, have been announced: https://www.emmagaala.fi/artistit/

There's now a video for the new Benea Reach track "New waters" at the band's website: https://www.beneareach.com/

Motorpsycho's new album is reportedly delayed due to "technical reasons" and will probably not be ready for a March/April release as planned.

Bianca's entire new album "Wasting our time" is now streaming on their website: https://www.biancaband.com/

The initial lineup for the second annual Nordklang Festival in St. Gallen, Switzerland has been announced for February 15-17 and will include Speaker Bite Me, Harald Haugaard & Morten Alfred Høirup, Efterklang and Our Broken Garden (Denmark), Amiina and Pétur Ben (Iceland), Rasmus Lyberth (Greenland), Dánjal and The Ghost (Faroe Islands), Frigg (Finland), Jackman (Norway) and Taxi Taxi (Sweden). The festival won't just promote Scandinavian music either, side-events include a focus on Nordic cinema as well as focus on Nordic books at historical monastery library Stiftsbibliothek. For more info, go here: https://www.nordklang.ch/

The nominees for this year's Manifest Awards, Sweden's alternative Grammy, have been announced:

Rhythm:
Kapten röd - Stjärnorna finns här (SwingKids/Border)
Million stylez - From a far (Bonnier Music/Bonnier Amigo)
Governor Andy – Underhållningsmaskinen (KBC Music/Border)
Livelihood - Sagans Sånger (SwingKids/Border)

Pop/Electronica:
Jens Lekman - Night Falls Over Kortedala (Service/Border)
The Honeydrips - Here Comes The Future (Sincerely Yours/Playground Music)
Erik de Vahl - Oh! My Spine
The Mary Onettes - The Mary Onettes (Labrador/Border)

Rock/Rockabilly/Blues/Garage:
Murder by Guitar - On Parade (Human audio recordings/Sounds of Subterrania)
Maharajas - In Pure Spite (Low Impact Recordings/Sound Pollution)
Alex Face - Smell Like A Woman (Alleycat/Sound Pollution)
High Hats - Too Much Is Never Enough (Alleycat/Sound Pollution)

Hardrock/Metal:
Arch Enemy - Rise of the tyrant (Century Media/EMI)
Dark Tranquillity - Fiction (Century Media/EMI)
Hardcore Superstar - Dreamin' in a casket (Gain/Sony BMG)
Watain - Sworn to the dark (Season Of Mist/Sound Pollution)

Hiphop/R&B/Soul:
Timbuktu - Oberoendeframkallande (Juju Records/Playground Music)
Adam Tensta - It's A Tensta Thing (K-Werks/Border)
Ken - Äntligen hemma (Pope/Playground Music)
Basutbudet - Startpaketet/Pluspaketet (Devrim/V2/Bonnier Amigo)

Experimental:
Jean-Louis Huhta - Halfway Between the World and Death (Slottet Records/Dotshop.se)
Mårten Falk - Eclectric Guitar Experience (dB Productions/CDA)
Rolf Enström - Quarks (Caprice Records/CDA)
Tape & Minamo - Birds of a Feather (Headz/Dotshop.se)

Dance:
Mikael Stavöstrand - Various productions 2007
The Field - From here we go sublime (Kompakt)
Minilogue – Orglar (Minilogue Rec)
Hug - Heroes (Kompakt)

Folk/Ballad:
Ale Möller Band - Djef Djel (Amigo/Bonnier Amigo)
Various Artists - Poem, ballader och lite blues - Återbesöket (Amigo/Bonnier Amigo)
Lisa Rydberg och Gunnar Idenstam - Bach på svenska (Gazell Records AB/Bonnier Amigo)
Sofia Karlsson - Visor från vinden (Amigo/Bonnier Amigo)

Jazz:
Ludvig Berghe Trio - An unplayed venue (Moserobie Music Production/Bonnier Amigo)
e.s.t. (Esbjörn Svensson Trio) - e.s.t Live in Hamburg (ACT/Bonnier Amigo)
Adåker, Milder, Stenson, Danielsson, Öström - Miles by Five (Touché Music AB/CDA)
Lennart Åberg & Norrbotten Big Band - Up north (Caprice Records/CDA)

Synth:
Emmon - The art and the evil (Wonderland records)
Endless Shame - Price of Devotion (KTOWN Records/Misty Music)
Mr Jones Machine – Återvändsgränd (Progress Productions/Border Music)
Terror Punk Syndicate - Extended Playtime (Progress Productions/Border Music)

Punk/Hardcore:
Wolfbrigade - Prey to the world (Agipunk/Unrest/MCR/Sound Pollution)
The Accidents - Summer dreams (Burning Heart/Epitaph/Bonnier Amigo)
Auktion - Spader ess (Cage Match Federation/Border)
The Mockingbirds - Always late and not even close (HepTown Records/Sound Pollution)

Singer/Songwriter:
Christian Kjellvander - I Saw Her From Here/I Saw Here From Her (Startracks/V2/Bonnier Amigo)
Kristofer Åström - Rainaway Town (Startracks/V2/Bonnier Amigo)
José González - In Our Nature (Imperial/Playground Music)
Mattias Bärjed - Originalmusiken till Upp till kamp! (Razzia/Bonnier Amigo)

Best Live Artist:
Familjen
Säkert!
Maia Hirashawa
Laakso

Digfi-prize (unsigned act):
Cocoanut Groove (Umeå)
Emily McWilliam's Desert Soul (Stockholm)
Cartwall (Piteå)
Knivderby (Jönköping)

Read more: https://www.manifestgalan.se/122.aspx

Congratulations to Jason Fleming, Joakim Näslund and Nimrod Hazan for winning the Universal Poplab CD giveaway. Your prize will be in the mail shortly, courtesy of Wonderland Records. For info on more Wonderland Records acts and a whole bunch of free downloads, check this out: https://www.wonderlandrecords.com/ex/

Stream five tracks from Madrugada's forthcoming self-titled album: https://www.platekompaniet.no/cache/published_575.asp

The cover art and tracklist for the new In Flames album "A sense of purpose" has been made public: https://www.inflames.com/
It comes out in Europe on April 4 via Nuclear Blast. A US release will be confirmed soon.

The new Tingsek single "Let it shine" (ft. Svante Lodén) is now streaming on myspace: https://www.myspace.com/tingsek

Timo Räisänen's new single "Sixteen" will be released on January 30. The previously unreleased track "About you now" is the exclusive b-side.

Just posted online: a brand new Aerial video for the track "Kallisti": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2nG4enFiM4
Copies of the new EP "The legion of dynamic dischord" are on the way and will be here soon!

Taken By Trees, the solo act of ex-Concretes frontwoman Victoria Bergsman, will do a few North American dates in February:

02/22 - Zipper Theatre, New York, NY
02/23 - Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
02/25 - Musée Juste Pour Rire, Montreal, Quebec
02/28 - The Roxy, Los Angeles, CA
03/01 - Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA
03/04 - Triple Door, Seattle, WA

Look her new single covering "Sweet child o' mine" by Guns'n'Roses on February 19 both in digital and 7" format.

Swedish bitpop artist Paza has a new EP for free download: https://www.x-dump.com/news.php?id=192