Swedish instrumental/soundtrack artist Fluorescent Heights will be releasing his new LP "Tourism" on January 27 via Copenhagen-based label and will also be heading down there for a trio of gigs to celebrate. Full details, including info on how locals can score a free copy of said album, can be found here; everyone else can go here for a full streaming preview.
has announced that Swedish postrockers Pg.lost will be releasing their new album "Key" on May 4. In other news, look for the band to tour Asia (Malaysia, Thailand, Hong Kong, China, Korea, Japan) in March with a European tour to follow in May.
The winners of the 2011 Spellemannprisen, the Norwegian Grammy, were announced over the weekend:
2011 Spellemann: Bernhoft - "Solidarity Breaks"
Female artist: Ane Brun - "It All Starts With One"
Male Artist: Bernhoft - "Solidarity Breaks"
Pop Group: Team Me - "To The Treetops!"
Rock: Honningbarna - "La Alarmane Gå"
Metal: Årabrot - "Solar Anus"
Electronica: Biosphere - "N-Plants"
Hip-hop: Lars Vaular - "Du Betyr Meg"
Folk/Traditional: Ragnhild Furebotten - "Never On A Sunday"
Jazz: Ola Kvernberg - "Liarbird"
Open Class: Bárut/Inga Juuso - "Balggis"
Lyrics: Lars Vaular - "Du Betyr Meg"
Composer: Rolf Wallin/Lundeng/Torjesen/Bodø Symfonietta/Eggen - "Wire And String"
Newcomer/Gramostipend: Jonas Alaska - "Jonas Alaska"
Music Video: Envy - One Song
2011 Hit: Plumbo - Møkkamann
Read more: http://www.spellemann.no/index.php?option=com_winner&Itemid=29&year=2011
Apparently Danish Americana artist CS Nielsen whose 2007 album "Against the dying of the light" was a year-end favorite has just released a brand new album called "Man of the fall". I had no idea until just now, but lucky for me, it's available via Spotify.
Danish artists Tobias Kippenberger (The Floor Is Made Of Lava), Sebastian Wolff (Kellermensch) and Simon Kvamm (Nephew/De Eneste To) are launching a new record label together called (In Our Name) and will be putting out Jonas Breum's (Coolsville/Breum) solo debut as their inaugural release. Look for the lead single "Fjendemin" to be released on January 30 with the rest of the album to come soon thereafter.
NRK P3 Pyro is streaming a new 27-minute track from She Said Destroy called "Bleeding fiction" along with a short text interview (in Norwegian): http://p3.no/pyro/10-sporsmal-med-anders-fra-she-said-destroy/
Alog picked up a small stack of cardboard sleeves on their way through Portland, OR and, after pondering awhile what to do with them, finally settled on making them into covers for a new live album. However, they did not settle for a standard cover design -- instead they enlisted Japanese Manga artist Junko Harada to do a 50-panel strip, one for each edition of the record. See the result here, entitled "Tokio Heaven": http://alog.net/tc/index.html
Check out a video sampler preview of the upcoming Culkin album "Several Sundays". I've been fortunate enough to get a preview listen and can confirm that the whole record is great, just you wait! And when you're done with that, go ahead and do a search for national aerobics on YouTube. You won't be disappointed by that either.
Well, this is disappointing: the website Svensk Musik is shutting down after one year of publishing a diverse array of content, both text and video: http://svenskmusik.org/tema/thank-you/
At long last, something new from the excellent Finnish act Murmansk. The band's third album will be out later this year.
Swedish retro/psych-rockers Siena Root will be heading out on a European tour this coming March: http://www.sienaroot.com/home/?page=shows
In somewhat related news, similarly minded act Three Seasons -- the band of ex-Siena Root member Sartez Faraj -- will also be touring in March: http://www.threeseasonsmusic.com/shows.php
Massgrav recently went down to Germany for a pair of shows and, as usual, came back with a full, entertaining report on what went down: http://www.massgrav.com/giglog_germany.html
More dates are starting to be confirmed for Refused's upcoming reunion tour: http://officialrefused.com.preview.binero.se/tour/
will be releasing the new LP "Fast forward" from Swedish indiepop act Liehtenstein on January 25. More info and a sample mp3 here.