Anna von Hausswolff does an admirable job crafting a piano-driven album that takes unexpected turns instead of falling prey to clichéd pop structures, with a number of the tracks "Singing from the grave" giving full voice to the talents of its composer. In this way, von Hausswolff successfully avoids the fate of being pigeonholed as 'just another female singer-songwriter,' but her idiosyncratic style has the unfortunate affect of rendering entire portions of the album difficult to get into. While I applaud the fact she avoids a number of avenues already explored by other artists, tracks like "Pills" and "Lost at sea" feel like bizarre, stripped-down Björk-inspired compositions, and, while it is amazing to listen to the whirlwinds von Hausswolff creates with her voice and fingers, it is not an experience that grows more enjoyable with repeated listening. It is more than obvious that Anna von Hausswolff is a talented musician and vocalist, but instead of finding myself lost in the songs, as I did with the gorgeous and haunting "Track of time" and "Above all", I began to feel outside most of the compositions, often unable to forge any connection between myself as listener and von Hausswolff as artist. - Lars Garvey Laing-Peterson
Swedish death metallers Maim have finished work on their sophomore album, recorded once again in their hometown of Åtvidaberg with producer/engineer Niels Nielsen. Expect a fall release. And speaking of Niels, check out a couple new solo singles from him at Bandcamp: http://nielsnielsen.bandcamp.com/
Norwegian act Tommy Tokyo & Starving For My Gravy will release their new album on September 20. No title or any other details yet, but it was produced by Head (way too many credits to list) and was recorded at Monnow Valley Studios in Wales.
Swedish hard-rockers Sienna Root are going to Spain in November:
11/11 - Gruta 77, Madrid
11/12 - Zeppelin Rock Bar, Sevilla
11/13 - La Ley Seca, Zaragoza
11/14 - Jimmy Jazz, Vitoria
11/18 - Dom Pedro, Gijón
11/19 - La Cueva del Jazz, Zamora
11/20 - Sala Mogambo, San Sebastian
11/21 - Taberna Belfast, Leon
Check out a live video of Norwegian artist Christel Alsos performing the new song "Please say", the first single from her forthcoming album due out later this year: http://www.nrk.no/nett-tv/indeks/222571/
01. Familjen
02. Kent
03. Håkan Hellström
04. The Concretes
05. CEO
06. Robyn
07. Jens Lekman
08. Jonathan Johansson
09. The Soundtrack of Our Lives
10. The Radio Dept.
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I'm Kingfisher, the new nom de guerre of Mr. Thomas Denver Jonsson, has confirmed the release of his new album "Arctic" for October via . Read more at his new website: http://www.imkingfisher.com/
Anna von Hausswolff