Listen Up!: Fredrik

back to some music that's a little more easily digestible than yesterdays (again, sorry about that, but i just had to) Fredrik is another band i've been wanting to blog about for awhile.  they are a swedish indie experimental band. front man Fredrik Hultin and bandmate O.Lindefelt originally created the band as a duo however have continued to bring on other artists to help with the creation of their albums.  for their release Na Na Ni in 2008, they banned with other artists to create a group fo six, but more recently for their release of Trilogi, they added Anna Moberg.  i think this bringing on of different artists really helps them to keep their sound so fresh and interesting. the music they create is quite solid at the base with lots of hard rhythms and downbeats, however the beautiful part about it is the intricate bells and guitar riffs which float over everything.  this kind of airy music seems to be highly linked to northern europeans (you only have to look as far as music heavyweights Jónsi and Bjorn to see it).  it must have something to do with the landscape or climate.  what i love most about it is that it's energy isn't overwhelmed by its lightness.  there is still a strong driving force behind everything which you both feel and hear.  probably the best description of the band's album Trilogi comes from musicremedy, 

"Together they represent a trilogy of contemporized viewpoints of the Lovecraftian dream passage - orientation at great cost and understanding at the risk of sanity."

unreal

You will like them if you like: Jónsi, Solander, Radiohead, Zero 7, Oren Lavie

Why they are important: the music is simple and soft, yet has an unstoppable driving life force behind it.  none of their songs can be labeled happy or sad or melancholy or whatever because they are constantly mixing elements of darkness and lightness which keep each piece in constant motion.  what i admire most is that they don't simply rely on their own capability as artsits, but are always willing to take on others visions and opinions and thus each time they create something, while it still holds the same basic idea, it never gets stale.

Songs to listen to: "Na Na Ni", "Angor Sleepwalking", "Holm", "11 Years", "Locked in the Basement", "Milo", "Ava", "Viskra", "Black Fur" 

- J

**P.S. if you have trouble finding their stuff on youtube (which is fairly difficult to navigate) listen to them at their myspace page here