elefanten (sonores)

Breakfast in America is out!

2010-11-06T01:44:00.003+01:00

It's actually out!

Get it here:
http://www.scdistribution.com/cat/scd_catalog.php?usersearch=Viktor%20Sjoberg&pagerequest=#

Viktor Sjöberg
Breakfast in America
Format: LP Price: $12.50
(SAINT49, St. Ives)

Viktor Sjöberg was born outside Gothenburg, Sweden in 1981 and has been crafting and releasing vaguely popular music since the late nineties. In later years he has been travelling the world performing with Jens Lekman and this record was largely recorded during these journeys, featuring Lekman and many other of Sjöberg's musical friends. "Breakfast in America" is based around a musical theme which was constructed by stealing some chords from a very famous pop song. It draws inspiration from the classic west coast AOR that Sjöberg grew up on and filters it through drone techniques, sample manipulation and jazzy pop sensibilities. "Breakfast in America" tells a story of love. The setting is Anywhere, USA.

It's also available on iTunes.

Get it get it!

Love

v

Lover Man release party: Malmö

2010-08-03T16:34:00.003+02:00

Facebook.

Time: August 28 at 8:00pm - August 29 at 3:00am
Location: Rummet, St Gertrudsgatan 4b (vid Panora) - Malmö, Sweden

V.Sjöberg New Jazz Ensemble släpper sitt andra album "Lover Man" på Kalligrammofon. Detta vill vi fira med spelningar och kalas på Rummet i Malmö. Konserterna kommer, liksom V.Sjöberg New Jazz Ensembles album, att kretsa kring jazzstandarden "Lover man" av J.Davis, R. Ramirez & J.Sherman.

LIVE: V.Sjöberg New Jazz Ensemble & T.B.A.

Inträde: 60 kr alt. 100 kr (inklusive ett exemplar av VSNJE - Lover Man LP)
...
Billig bar och skönt häng utlovas.

---

Om V.Sjöberg New Jazz Ensemble:

Viktor Sjöberg är en göteborgsmusiker född 1981 som genom åren rört sig chosefritt mellan instrumental hip-hop, mjuk abstrakt electronica, ny jazz och dansant popmusik. De senaste åren har han turnerat med, och varit en kärnmedlem i, Jens Lekmans liveband. Han har också släppt en soloskiva på Kalligrammofon, ett album med sin jazzensemble på iDeal och är nu aktuell med ett nytt soloalbum på amerikanska St Ives.

V.Sjöberg New Jazz Ensemble har beskrivits som akustisk dronejazz och erbjuder klangvärldar som har mycket lite gemensamt med atonal improvisation och andra påstått fria uttryck som man vanligtvis associerar med modern jazz.

" In 2005 I named this
constellation the V. Sjöberg New Jazz Ensemble. In a conversation that I once had with Douglas Holmquist, one of the original members of the V. Sjöberg New Jazz Ensemble, he reflected on the fact that “free jazz” in the Ornette Coleman-sense was sort of followed by an implicit exclamation mark and that this exclamation mark seem to have evaporated as the phrase went from being a call to arms into being a description of something formulaic and institutionalized.

The reasons behind forming this group, the V. Sjöberg New Jazz
Ensemble, and calling it a New Jazz Ensemble isn’t really about
something as catchphrase-friendly as “bringing that exclamation mark back!” It is just a humble comment on the sad fact that a lot of the time the word jazz is very limiting, both in the mind of the consumer and from the point of view of the musician/producer. It shouldn’t have to be, you know?"

Om Lover Man:

Lover Man är V.Sjöberg New Jazz Ensembles andra album. Inspelat i Malmö, Göteborg och San Diego.

The ‘Lover man project’ is based around the song “Lover man” as
written by Jimmy Davis, Ram Ramirez and Jimmy Sherman. It was written for Billie Holiday and although her version might still be considered to be the most popular, it soon became the jazz standard that it is to this day.

Through performing "Lover man" we shall study the concept of freedom. Is it really all that free?

http://vsnje.wordpress.com/
http://structuressonores.com/

---

Om Kalligrammofon:

Kalligrammofon is a record label for experimental/pop & experimental pop music. Based in Malmö and operating since 2006. Releases include works from V.Sjöberg, Tsukimono, Dead Letters Spell out Dead Words, Senza Testa, Originalljudet & others.

V.Sjöbergs "Lover Man-projekt" får nu fysisk form som en vinyl LP på Kalligrammofon. Limiterad utgåva: 275 exemplar.

http://kalligrammofon.com/
http://myspace.com/kalligrammofon

---

Raising bars, upping antes

2010-04-15T08:41:00.002+02:00

http://www.labrador.se/never/mp3/TheRadioDept._NeverFollowSuit.mp3

Sonores Studios

2010-04-04T09:28:00.002+02:00

Hay hay,

you should really check this out.

Record your next album here:

http://www.sonoresstudios.com/

High end vintage gear and the finest contemporary heart.

as of right now

2010-03-30T16:52:00.001+02:00

if you want to read a blog written by me (and my friend jonas), you'll have to go here:

http://beersentence.tumblr.com/

So beautiful: Steve Reich's 'Electric Counterpoint III. Allegro' performed by the UST Guitar Ensemble.

2010-01-18T22:07:00.002+01:00

(via prejka.)

Youtube:

burger414 (1 månad sedan)
Im sorry but this is a bad perfomance! You're not playing together, one's trying to play over the other, bad mixing, this needed to be rehearsed more.

ollieho89 (2 månader sedan)
HORRIBLE!!! TUNE THE GUITARS FFS

stepahead2be (7 månader sedan)
the people listening look dead.

ieatcrayons822 (1 år sedan)
tune your guitars

woodros (1 år sedan)
wow, tuning

This is why I came to California

2010-01-14T12:40:00.002+01:00

Leon Ware - Why I Came to California (mp3, zShare)

God jul

2009-12-22T18:28:00.005+01:00

This year I decided to record my favorite Christmas song, "Gläns över sjö och strand", with some of my friends. We recorded the sounds in Sonores Studios in Gothenburg and performed the final version of the song live at the Kalligrammofon St. Lucia festivities in Malmö. It was a fantastic evening. Today a shorter rendition of the song is presented as a part of Högsbo & Hisingens Bibl ioteks Christmas Calender, and this is the version that I am sharing with you today.

Viktor Sjöberg - Gläns över sjö och strand (kort version) by viktorsjoberg

Saxofon & Rhodes: Frida Thurfjell.

Cello: Emma Augustsson.

Engineered by Jonas Odhner.

Happy Holiday wishes from Structures Sonores!

Ny musik för hållbar utveckling

2009-11-04T12:15:00.002+01:00

Kalligrammofon / Structures Sonores / Elefantkvinnan Editions Showcase:

Tsukimono
DZR:P
Originalljudet

Ny Musik För Hållbar Utveckling: Festival äger rum den 14-15 november på Kulturhuset i Stockholm. Två scener, två dagar, 19 timmar musik, ca 20 artister, långdistro, filmvisning, vernissage, scensamtal, efterfest, progressivitet, hembakat. Fri entré, som alltid.

Det blir en hel del annat som är bra också. Och senare på lördagen blir det fest och jag ska spela skivor.

Mer detaljer snart!

Kalligrammofon & Structures Sonores Radio

2009-11-02T16:06:00.002+01:00

We've got some news for you! Me and my dear friend Gustav Rosengren are starting an online radio show, and the first episode is being released today.
So far it's all in Swedish, but we urge international readers to keep an eye open for non-Swedish content in the future.
You'll find the shows here: http://kssradio.tumblr.com/ (stream or download)

We're celebrating New Years Eve in Chicago! (Brief recap.)

2009-10-22T15:53:00.005+02:00

My first visit to Chicago was with Daniel in 2006. We stayed at the Motel 6 in Schiller Park. It was a tremendous time.

This was the best photo I took in Chicago that time around.

When I returned to Chicago the following year we played here. Logan Square Auditorium.

This is where I slept that night.

We returned to Logan Square Auditorium in the early spring of 2008 and I don't have any photos of that apparently. It was pretty cool, but maybe not as great as my other visits. I remember walking with Tammy to get some mexican food and putting on Steve Reich as the pre-show music. Oh yeah, this show was when my computer froze for the first time. Classic!

In October of last year I was flown in to play music at an absolutely fantastic wedding in Chicago. It was a perfect couple of days.

Early this summer we spent a day in Chicago on our way from Alaska to Brazil. We stayed at a nice hotel and I did some Chicago shopping.

Get ready Chicago, I (and a few other major players in the game of life) will be back for New Years Eve, playing at the Empty Bottle with the Jens Lekman experience.

Me + Swote

2009-10-20T14:00:00.002+02:00

I'll be performing with Frida & Emma of Swote next week here in Gothenburg. It's going to be very exciting. We'll be providing a live score to the classic silent movie The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

One of the dopest songs of all time and a photo of a really cool train

2009-10-19T23:45:00.003+02:00

Pharoah Sanders – Greeting to Saud (Brother McCoy Tyner) (zshare)

vertical epic reup

2009-10-19T23:38:00.003+02:00

It was brought to my attention that the link to last years' Vertical Epic mix had died, so here's a fresh one.

Tenderfist

2009-10-12T18:35:00.000+02:00

The future!

this year's vertical epic mix

2009-09-28T17:12:00.002+02:00

So, I decided that the Vertical Epic mix that I did last year will be a reccurring phenomenon. A good way to at least present one musical collage every year. This year the mix will celebrate Stone's Vertical Epic 09.09.09, which is released in Sweden on the first of December. This year's VE is quite a bit darker than 07.07.07, and that'll surely be reflected in the mix. Naturally this will all come into place when the beer is being enjoyed in December.

some nerve

2009-09-23T21:02:00.002+02:00

Ok, so maybe you thought that this blogggg was dead. If you did I certainly can't blame you, I totally forgot about it for a while. And when I felt that I had something important to share with the world I thought that a simple facebook status would suffice. What a fool I was.
I am happy to present the best pop happening since Jens sent me "An argument with myself" and I played it endlessly:
The newest song from Most Valuable Players.

Finally officially the best pop group in the world.

Download "Some Nerve" here: http://www.mostvaluableplayers.se/

elefanten återanvänder inlägg från 2004, del 1.

2009-09-17T23:15:00.002+02:00

Fortfarande stört-aktuellt!

Ok, ok. We're done now.

2009-06-21T21:29:00.002+02:00

This photo was taken last night in Santiago, Chile. We played a fantastic last show in an old salt factory. My midi controller was stolen the previous night in Buenos Aires so I had to do the show by funking the laptop mouse. It went well.

This morning I went to the airport at 5 AM and went I got there I was rushed onto a different flight than I was originally supposed to go on, with no real reason given (at least this was not delivered in English). My check in bag was left behind sans luggage tag and I still don't know if I'll ever see it again. I am currently in Sao Paulo enjoying a lovely 10 hour layover. I am juggling the two activities of trying to not fall asleep and checking in on the status of my lost bag.

With that said: I am coming back to California (and later, Sweden). I can't wait.

And mail correspondence should be back to normal fairly soon.

MERCH

2009-05-12T08:53:00.001+02:00

New web space, similar information!

2009-05-01T08:01:00.000+02:00

THE SUMMER NEVER ENDS PT 2:

2009-04-30T20:11:00.002+02:00

SOUTH AMERICA
Jens Lekman with Viktor Sjöberg, performing as a duo

June 20 - Santiago, Chilé - TBA
June 19 - Buenos Aires, Argentina - TBA
June 17 - Curitiba, Brazil - Era Só O Que Faltava
June 16 - Recife, Brazil - UK Pub
June 14 - Porto Alegre, Brazil - Santander Cultural
June 13 - Sao Paulo, Brazil - Studio SP

Here's a song by one of my greatest discoveries in later days, Arthur Verocai. The album that this cut is from has been reissued by Ubiquity and it's all pretty fantastic, with arrangements to die for.

Arthur Verocai - Sylvia (mp3)

(photo stolen from Daily Dolores!)

Tenor saxophone: Archie Shepp, John Coltrane & Pharoah Sanders

2009-04-28T08:07:00.003+02:00

While looking for the cover art online I realized that these days you can download this album for free and that's cool. However, no matter how cheap that may seem this music will forever stay EXPENSIVE and EXPANSIVE.
Stay freeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Mindre kvalificerad musik

2009-04-18T19:29:00.002+02:00

I danska Politiken tycker Morten Madsen, jurist i danska musikförbundet, att de The Pirate Bay-männen, helt utan anledning, beter sig som Robin Hood-typer.
- Nätpiraternas inställning betyder i slutänden att det blir mindre kvalificerad musik, säger han.

Estetik

2009-04-17T22:08:00.001+02:00

Lars Gullin: Modern Sounds Sweden Label: Contemporary 2505 (USA) 10" LP 1953.
(From Birka Jazz, a good resource.)

Apt.

2009-04-14T17:56:00.002+02:00

Lägenhet uthyres i Göteborg från mitten/slutet av maj till slutet av juni. Kontakta mig via viktorsjoberg AT gmail.com för mer information!

Here come those santa ana winds again

2009-03-30T06:27:00.002+02:00

Back in the early summer days of 2003 I read a remarkably well written text that made me type the words "Rocky Dennis" into a text entry box. This action resulted in me downloading four songs that at the time were considered to be the work of Rocky Dennis, a mysterious character living somewhere in my hometown of Gothenburg, Sweden.

I went and saw Rocky Dennis perform live about a month later and was intrigued by his stage presence, his voice and how well his effective use of samples worked in a live context. The seemingly rehearsed crowd heckling completed the overall feeling; I was witnessing something truly special.

The months passed and I learned that the character of Rocky Dennis never really existed. This music was created by Jens Lekman. He quickly rose to fame and but even as his albums made the charts he continued to release severely limited editions and seemed to be working overtime to maintain that special feeling that was so crucial to the magic of his initial endeavors.

I started corresponding with Jens by ordering his first self released seven inch single. It arrived wrapped in cut up banana boxes. In early 2007 we played our first show together and I have since then been traveling the world as a part of the Jens Lekman experience. I still stand by my five year old statement that Jens Lekman is the greatest pop singer since Neil Tennant.

The Jens Lekman performance at The Loft is the logical final installment of a series that celebrates artists that possess the rare ability to capture and express the beauty of everyday life.

05/26/09 San Diego, CA - The Loft - UCSD
05/27/09 Los Angeles, CA - The Echo
05/28/09 Los Angeles, CA - The Echo
05/29/09 Santa Barbara, CA - Velvet Jones
05/30/09 San Luis Obispo, CA - SLO Art Center
06/01/09 San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill
06/02/09 San Francisco, CA - Bottom of the Hill
06/03/09 Eugene, OR - WOW Hall
06/04/09 Seattle, WA - Crocodile Cafe
06/05/09 Seattle, WA - Crocodile Cafe
06/06/09 Portland, OR - Wonder Ballroom
06/07/09 Vancouver, BC - TBA

Writing it all down

2009-03-28T03:57:00.001+01:00

Finalizing at last.

A STRUCTURES SONORES PRESENTATION

2009-03-18T00:32:00.003+01:00

In the month of May, I am curating four nights at The Loft in La Jolla. The Loft is a venue run by the University of California San Diego and is described as a "performance lounge and social crossroads where emerging art and pop culture collide."
These are the four evenings not to miss if you are anywhere near Southern California:

Sunday, May 3, 2009 / 8:00 PM: Bird by Snow

I was first introduced to the world of Bird by Snow in May of 2007. I was sitting on a piece of plastic patio furniture in a Swedish cave that occasionally doubles as an underground sex dungeon. Fletcher Tucker took the stage, introduced himself as Bird by Snow and proceeded to fill the dark cave with the curious form of Californian romanticism that I since have come to associate his work with.

Without getting too deep into references and namedropping I would say that his style – his song writing, production style and overall aesthetic – has roots dating back to the opening stanzas of Walt Whitman’s “Leaves of Grass”. To me the musical output of Bird by Snow seem to be devoted to the investigation of everything that surrounds Fletcher Tucker, whether it’d be going for a beautiful walk through dark woods or breathing long and deep on a the top of a cliff.

Others described Bird by Snow as “trancendental beach-grunge” or “psychic mountain-dub” and while that might be partly true, I urge you to examine this for yourself. In the last couple of years Bird by Snow is one of the very few new artists that have really managed to wow me. I am eagerly awaiting his next step and I am very happy to be able to bring him to The Loft.

Wednesday, May 6, 2009 / 8:00 PM: William Basinski

Among other qualities, William Basinski possesses the rare ability to isolate and extend a carefully selected moment, thereby creating eternal beauty. I first learned about this don of patient melancholy in January 2004, when a dear friend introduced me to The Disintegration Loops, a series of four compact discs containing recordings of twenty year old tape loops slowly falling apart. William Basinski:

"In the process of archiving and digitizing analog tape loops from work I had done in 1982, I discovered some wonderful sweeping pastoral pieces I had forgotten about. Beautiful, lush cinematic truly American pastoral landscapes swept before my ears and eyes. Tied up in these melodies were my youth, my paradise lost, the American pastoral landscape, all dying gently, gracefully, beautifully. Life and death were being recorded here as a whole: death as simply a part of life: a cosmic change, a transformation."

William Basinski is an extremely important artist. His way of searching out the beauty that otherwise would go unnoticed is unparalleled. I owe him some of my most memorable listening experiences and I am very proud to present an opportunity for his work to be enjoyed.

Wednesday, May 13, 2009 / 8:00 PM: V. Sjöberg New Jazz Ensemble

Since late 2004 I have been working with an ever changing group of musicians around my home country of Sweden. In 2005 I named this constellation the V. Sjöberg New Jazz Ensemble. In a conversation that I once had with Douglas Holmquist, one of the original members of the V. Sjöberg New Jazz Ensemble, he reflected on the fact that “free jazz” in the Ornette Coleman-sense was sort of followed by an implicit exclamation mark and that this exclamation mark seem to have evaporated as the phrase went from being a call to arms into being a description of something formulaic and institutionalized.

The reasons behind forming this group, the V. Sjöberg New Jazz Ensemble, and calling it a New Jazz Ensemble isn’t really about something as catchphrase-friendly as “bringing that exclamation mark back!” It is just a humble comment on the sad fact that a lot of the time the word jazz is very limiting, both in the mind of the consumer and from the point of view of the musician/producer. It shouldn’t have to be, you know?

Tonight we shall study the concept of freedom. Is it really all that free?

For this performance the New Jazz Ensemble will consist of players from the UCSD Music Department along with local jazz musicians. It’ll be great, I’m sure.

Tuesday, May 26, 2009 / 8:00 PM: Jens Lekman

Yeah, it'll be a good party.

2009-03-13T05:24:00.003+01:00

Resonemang och ambition

2009-02-25T01:11:00.003+01:00

Jag har definitivt inget emot att den där drömska plastljudbilden har präglat den svenska mp3-distribuerade popmusiken ett tag nu. Men det kan vara bra att komma ihåg att autenticitetens motsats inte är nödvändigtvis är skönhet.
Hantera era midi-pianon varsamt framöver.

Tack på förhand,

Viktor Sjöberg

A little late

2009-02-17T22:53:00.001+01:00

But still nice .

Swote

2009-02-16T16:37:00.002+01:00

While most of the EXPERIMENTAL music fans of Gothenburg were still recovering from an evening of synthesized euthanasia courtesy of CLUSTER, me and my pals Gustav and Cecilia went to check out something that is still very much alive.
They're called SWOTE and they are into trying everything. They are not boring.
If you're interested in this kind of thing I urge you to catch them in concert and that you check out this page.

Lykke Li

2009-01-20T21:27:00.004+01:00

I generally try to not write about things I dislike, but this video just brought me over the edge.
Dear world, how did you let this happen? I hope it ends here. It has to because it's been a good while since I've seen an artist that redefines the phrase 'completely mediocre'.
I wasn't going to bring it up but then she had to sing a Rick Ross-song so here we go.

It's going down

2009-01-20T10:41:00.003+01:00

Happy president day and this is where the action is: http://vsnje.wordpress.com/

The making of an album

2009-01-08T21:58:00.001+01:00

You can follow the making of an album at this URL: http://vsnje.wordpress.com/

Everything will be as it should be.

försent: 2 saker jag var sen med 2008

2009-01-02T20:29:00.002+01:00

Flera år efter den egentliga hypen vill jag ändå berätta om vad jag gillade förra året.

Lil' Wayne.
Ofta otroligt spännande att lyssna på så här fräsch musik. Framförallt handlar det om rapglädje i sin renaste form (se: spelglädje.) Han gjorde även årets bästa video, som väl får summera mycket av det jag tyckte om. För några månader sedan var jag ute och gick med min hund i centrala Göteborg och på Molinsgatan hör vi uppspelta röster från en balkong några våningar upp. Det är fyra flickor, runt tio år gamla, som förenas i en fullständigt överlycklig kör: "a milli a milli a milli". Sedan börjar en av dem härma den slappa versen medan de andra fortsätter sin sång. Det var bra musik det.

Lindström.
Fantastisk låt och jättebra album, den här "Where You Go I Go Too".

viktor sjöberg drinking a vertical epic ale and playing around with a few songs, december 2008.

2008-12-20T19:08:00.002+01:00

drank this great beer yesterday and recorded a live mix just for fun.
the mix is about 40 minutes long and it's very random at times. i went into it with a few slightly ambitious ideas and those are in there just kind of sliced between other songs that i like. it's a bit sloppy at times and i like that. all live except the intro addition of my favorite philadelphian men's choir, the silver ages, performing a swedish drinking song. also the daryl hall song at the end was faded in later.
it would be great and timely if this mix included a lot of great music from the past 12 months, but it doesn't. as far as i know only the byrne/eno-song and the moodymann track was released this year. oh well. it's what i felt like listening to on a cold december night in 2008.

download the vertical epic ale mix here. (*. mp3, 40 min, 56 MB)

read more about the ale here.

i'd rather that you'd listen to the mix before reading a tracklist but at the same time i rarely download a mix if i can't browse a tracklist so... it went something like this;

the silver ages - "helan går"
jeru - "me or the papes"
phil cordell - "red lady"
motor city drum ensemble - "stripped down"
kelley polar - "vocalise (from here to polarity)"
gang starr - "you know my steez"
aceyalone & p.e.a.c.e. - "microphones"
a tribe called quest - "electric relaxation"
motel crew - "don't ask permission"
holger czukay - "persian love"
state of grace - "that's when we'll be free"
david byrne & brian eno - "strange overtones"
motor city drum ensemble - "stripped down"
the klf - "build a fire"
the sea and cake - "le baron"
sharon redd - "beat the street"
sparks - "beat the clock"
moodymann - "freeki MF"
brotha brotha - "original mix"
luther vandross - "never too much"
mariam bagayogo - "miniyan ye koloni mme"
ten city - "that's the way love is"
akufen - "wet floors"
pierre's pfantasy club - "dream girl"
daryl hall - "the farther away i am"

(photo by jonsa l.)

Things overlooked

2008-12-19T20:16:00.004+01:00

My friend Johan Neij (pictured above) has since we started to get to know eachother about four years ago brought up the music of Anton Lennartsson every now and then. Johan is possibly the strongest supporter of the very exciting Swedish music scene that kind of came together at a workshop at Neon Gallery in Brösarp in 2004. Read/see about it here. Here's where I met and first played with Douglas Holmquist and Kristofer Ström. Here's where David Sjöberg did a classic anti-authority DJ-set. Anton Lennartsson took part in this workshop as well, but we never connected on any major level. I don't know why I never listened to Johan's advice to check out Anton's music (I did hear an EP back in the day that I wasn't that fond of) but I did listen to this one song today while going through old mp3-discs and I am blown away. It's incredibly beautiful and it was featured on a classic Swedish indie compilation (that I obviously never really got into either). I am assuming that this is from his Mjäll EP.

Anton - "Araf" (*.mp3)

This is my tribute to the passion of Johan Neij.

Updated

2008-12-18T06:47:00.002+01:00

The front page of structuressonores.com/ got a long awaited overhaul this morning. Nothing mindblowing but still much needed.

Getting married again

2008-12-17T17:25:00.002+01:00

I hear you’re getting married again.
In February. I’m marrying a girl named Emily Stofle.
Is she an actress? Was she in any of your films?
She was just in one, “Inland Empire.”
You’ve been married three times before?
Yeah, it’s real great.
Why would someone who feels so generally blissed out marry so many times?
Well, we live in the field of relativity. Things change.
Do you plan to film your wedding?
No. It’s a hassle. So many things these days are made to look at later. Why not just have the experience and remember it?
Because most people have the experience and forget it.
Some things we forget. But many things we remember on the mental screen, which is the biggest screen of all.

The full interview to be found here.

2008-12-17T16:55:00.003+01:00

När man är ute i världen och spelar musik som människor har fått för sig är indiepop eller indierock stöter man ofta på individer som tar för givet att man har växt upp på en stadig altrocksdiet. När det samtalsämnet allt som oftast havererar totalt på grund av mina inflikningar "Pet Shop Boys" och "hiphop" brukar min samtalspartner, oavsett ålder och vare sig det är i Europa, Nordamerika eller Asien, söka tillflykt i att ta upp den här skivan.
"En sådan fantastisk skiva!" säger de. Jag nickar och klämmer fram ett "ja, jättebra".
Sedan försöker jag byta samtalsämne.

The best

2008-12-13T12:09:00.004+01:00

Just as I am about to leave marvellous Malaysia and Asia for the winter days of Sweden I get the news that the Auton album has been listed as the 8th best thing of 2008 at Sweden's most reliable music site digfi.com. I am very happy about that!
Read the full list here!

So, Auton is slaying it on the review tip lately...

2008-12-13T06:36:00.002+01:00

Sonic Magazine:

AUTON
Any Where Out of the World
Structures Sonores
Betyg: 8

Viktor Sjöberg startade egentligen skivetiketten Structures Sonores för att släppa sin egen musik, men det hela började glida över i något annat i och med den hyllade utgivningen av trion Sonores (där Sjöberg förvisso är med) album »Elefanten« häromåret.
Auton är den första akt han ger ut utan att själv vara direkt involverad i aktens skapande. Och han är så oerhört stolt över att få vara den som förmedlar just den här musiken ut i vida världen att han skrivit under pressreleasen med sitt namn i guldskrift.
Också Auton är en trio, bestående av Douglas Holmquist, Rikard Heberling och Petter Samuelsson (där de två första möjligen kan kännas igen från duon Dr. Higgins). Liksom Sonores, Ass, Erik Enocksson, Tape, Testbild och en drös andra svenska akter i samma gebit rör de sig på – om vi får vara lite pretentiösa – vad som närmast känns som jungfrulig mark. Inte så att Autons toner är särskilt konstiga eller avancerade eller svåra.
Mer att det känns som att de börjar från början. Struntar i allt som redan gjorts och sagts. Och bara skapar musik, utan ramar, utan perspektiv. Bara gör det.
Visst kan man säga att »Sagittarius A« bär på drag av Steve Reichs minimalistiska klassiker »Music for 18 Musicians«, att »36,201 ft« för tankarna till Jim O'Rourkes långa, fria, jordnära stycken. Att annat doftar sextiotalsjazz, svensk folkton, ambient eller intrikat pausmusik från något BBC-arkiv. Men det är känslan av fräschhet som dominerar, känslan av otvungen frihet, av sprudlande upptäckar- och berättarglädje.
Bäst gillar jag den för skivan ovanligt intensiva »Krater«, ett intressant möte mellan en rätt skramlig gitarr och några ytterst väna blåsinstrument. Vackert!
PATRIK LINDGREN
2008-11-25

Textura:

Auton: Any Where Out of the World
Structures Sonores

The refined interplay Swedish musicians Rikard Heberling, Douglas Holmquist, and Petter Samuelsson execute on their Auton album Any Where Out of the World elevates it above much of whatever else passes for small-group instrumental music-making these days. Talk about gestation: recording of the album was actually started in 2004 in Copenhagen but not until the spring of 2008 was the full-length completed in Malmö (some of the album's material was released as a fifty-copy CD-R release on the now-defunct Malmö, Sweden-based Produkt label in 2006). Whether by accident or design, the album's material invokes the music of diverse figures such as Nino Rota (“El Dorado”), Steve Reich (the staccato mallet patterns at the start of “Sagittarius A”), and Pat Metheny; both “Aerikanne,” with its elegant intertwine of dancing piano and vibes melodies augmented by fluid electric guitar lines, and “Orgelkorall,” with its similarly buoyant themes, could easily have come from the pen of the justly-celebrated jazz guitarist. Sprinkled with the instrumental colour of trumpet, electric piano, vibes, glockenspiel, and electric guitar, the album also includes mournful ballads (the piano-based “Lament I” and wistful Rhodes-and-guitar outro “Lament II”), a heavy, improv-styled setting of layered trumpets and corroded electric guitar stabs (“Krater”), and even a couple of songs featuring wordless vocals (Helena Ahlblom adds her pretty voice to the trio's on “36,201 ft”).

Listening to Auton's finely-crafted, largely acoustic material, it's hard to believe that Heberling and Holmquist toiled in a synthesizer-based pop outfit named Dr. Higgins before Auton came into being. Regardless, the new release is accompanied by a sheet of liner notes (in Swedish) by Petter Herbertsson who reportedly designated the earlier CD-R one of the top three records ever recorded in Sweden. Though I don't know if I'd go quite that far, I would at the very least argue that Any Where Out of the World is high-quality material that definitely deserves to be heard by a whole lot more than fifty people.

December 2008

Dagens Skiva:

Any Where Out of the World (album, cd) Auton: 2008; structures sonores; 8/10

Svenska bilder

Om Änglagård utspelade sig på en skärgårdsö, regisserades av Ingmar Bergman, filmades av Sven Nykvist och rollen som Helena Bergström spelades av Liv Ullman då skulle Auton ha kunnat skriva musiken. Utan att det för den skull hade blivit Persona av alltihop. Det hade blivit något ljusare. Något med hopp. Med eftertanke.

Om Tomas Alfredsson får fortsätta filma John Ajvide Lindqvists böcker och kommer fram till Människohamn, då hoppas jag att han kontaktar Douglas Holmquist, Rikard Heberling och Petter Samuelsson. De borde skriva stämningsmusiken.

Autons instrumentala och ofta pastorala ljudbilder är som skrivna för att ackompanjera bilder av den svenska skärgården. Gärna i dystra färger. Gärna till en historia som är svår, eller inte ens nödvändig, att placera i tid och rum. Deras musik doftar av hembygdsromantik med en sotig underton.

Du nalkas ljuva sommar med fasa alltför stor.

Trion målar lyriska melodier som ofta är mer av kulisser än huvudrollsinnehavare. Någon gång försvinner musiken ur min uppmärksamhet, men ofta har den varit en utmärkt kamrat under de senaste veckorna av höstslask på väg mot vinter.

Heberling, Holmquist och Samuelsson rör sig i skugglandet mellan electronica, pop och jazz. Mellan melodi och ljud. Någonstans i området mellan Anagram och 1900.

Any Where Out of the World är lätt att ta till sig och har ett avgrundsdjup av stämningar att utforska länge länge.

-------

Get the album here: http://www.structuressonores.com/shop

Asia #3: Kuala Lumpur, China & Singspore photos

2008-12-10T04:58:00.002+01:00

All the photos so far can be found here: CLICK

2008-12-09T21:13:00.000+01:00

THIS
IS
NOT
A
HOUSE
CLUB

Asia #2: Seoul photos

2008-12-02T09:41:00.002+01:00

Click here.

Asia #1: Seoul

2008-11-27T07:20:00.002+01:00

Just arrived in South Korea. Haven't seen a thing yet but I'm psyched.

Photos and words shall follow, I assume.

(Photo stolen from this person.)

X-mas is getting closer!

2008-11-24T20:31:00.002+01:00

Make sure to let your loved ones know that you love them!

My Spiritual Indian

2008-11-20T12:04:00.003+01:00

Eddie Palmieri.
I've been aware of this name for some years, and I think I first saw it on the Nu Yorican Soul album that my mother bought in Paris back in 1998. I've never heard a lot of his solo material and it seems that some of it is a little too traditional latin band stuff for me to really get down on my knees, but the other day I stumbled on this song on a blog (can't remember where, sorry).
I was totally hooked from just the first few seconds. The intro sounds like what we could be caught doing with the V.S. New Jazz Ensemble and it is just marvellous. Then it fires into this fairly straight latin groove that's eventually being challenged by that brilliant tumbling piano playing and eventually a terribly overdriven fuzz guitar seals the deal. It's magic.

Eddie Palmieri - "My Spritual Indian"

---
It's available here (linking it just because it took me a while to find it so I want to spare anyone those 10 minutes in case you feel the same way I do about this song.)

Wanderer

2008-11-14T21:54:00.002+01:00

This is such a weird and beautiful song.

I don't know anything about it except that it's obviously Romanthony and that it's one of the darkest house-not-house ballads I've ever heard.

Please fill me in if you know the ledge and if you don't then just enjoy this epic song.

Romanthony - "The Wanderer"

"Auton och jazzen"

2008-11-11T12:43:00.005+01:00

De rör sig utanför snäva tidsramar och uppvisar en fin musikalisk mognad när de med små medel presenterar något högst levande och organiskt. Om det sen är jazz är jag inte rätt man att bedöma. Fan vet om inte en liten del av mig gick in med förutfattade meningar om tillkämpat naiv musikermusik på svåråtkomliga instrument, men alla såna föreställningar blåstes i så fall snabbt av banan av det öppna tilltalet och den klara skärpan i melodierna.

Hur kunde jag glömma bort att länka den här fina texten om Auton-skivan? Joakim Sandström skriver helt klart bäst hittills. Han är bra på det.

(Helt orelaterad men fin bild på David Sjöberg, Jonas Odhner och Johan Gustavsson.)

Göteborgsskämt: "Traffic jam"

2008-11-06T12:49:00.006+01:00

Det är kul när de spelar den här låten ett tag och sedan börjar någon tuta i sin lur så att det låter som som en frustrerad långtradarchaufför. (Utdragen låg ton.) Han håller inte på länge innan en annan rackare blåser på och antar rollen av den irriterande irriterade personbilspendlaren. Bra improv.

Asian tour 2008

2008-11-05T02:54:00.001+01:00

JENS LEKMAN and VIKTOR SJÖBERG
ASIAN TOUR 2008

Nov 29 - Seoul, South Korea - Ssamzie Spac
Nov 30 - Seoul, South Korea - Ssamzie Spac
Dec 1 - Singapore - The White Rabbit
Dec 2 - Beijing, China - Yugong Yishan
Dec 3 - Hangzhou, China- JZ
Dec 4 - Shanghai, China - JZ
Dec 6 - Bandung, Indonesia - TBA
Dec ? - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - TBA

It's official. Let's rip it up.

"Mescalin mix"

2008-11-03T14:59:00.003+01:00

A collection of tidbits from the last couple of weeks (to be updated and completed).

The Structures Sonores Fall Tour 2008 was a tremendous success in almost every way imaginable. First of all; Auton performed four times in four cities under conditions that were all very different from eachother. My favorite one was actually Copenhagen, the very first show. As the tour went on I became more involved in the Auton show as a performer and I did not have the time to fully enjoy the nuances the way you do when you're in the audience witnessing something really special. And Copenhagen was special. These were the first shivering notes that Auton had performed together on a stage since around August 2006. (Correct me if I am wrong.) This was also the first time I got a chance to see them live. And I was swept off my feet.

The venue, Det Poetiske Bureau was certainly interesting in many ways but most of all it was kind of a perfect setting for Auton to play on a Thursday night. In fact, it would be nice if they played there every Thursday for the next 20 years. Den orientaliske mattor, art, great atmosphere and a really, really happy singer.

More soon.

Hannna Eliason, Tidningen Kulturen on V. Sjöberg New Jazz Quartet @ Geiger:

Från Sverige kommer även Viktor Sjöberg, som intar scenen med en något reducerad upplaga av sin new jazz-ensemble. Denna kväll utgörs den av två saxofoner, elgitarr och piano. På den lilla scenens ena kant står bandledaren själv, fingrar på en laptop och ger diskreta handsignaler till sina bandmedlemmar.

Musiken börjar ofta trevande och känns en smula flyktig och irrande, men i takt med att fler lager och harmonier byggs på smälter allt samman till ett rytmiskt flöde som känns urbant och modernt. Jag kommer på mig själv med att dras in i en ström av dagdrömmar, och tvingas rycka mig ur den känslan genom att plita ner ord som "organiskt", "böljande" och "futuristisk" i min lilla svarta anteckningsbok.

Nu vill jag inte på något sätt antyda att Sjöbergs musik skulle vara så tråkig att lyssnaren måste börja drömma sig bort - den inbjuder snarare till att på ett njutbart sätt stiga in i reflektion och eftertanke.

Än mer imponerad blir jag då jag senare får reda på att musikernas hörlurar hade en alldeles speciell funktion. Själv noterade jag dem men antog att de hade med medhörningen att göra. Men nej, det visar sig att var och en fått egna stycken musik att följa rakt in i öronen, utan att veta vad bandkamraten bredvid hört samtidigt. Ett intressant koncept som visar sig fungera utmärkt även i praktiken.

That last part is not a 100% correct, but that's fine.

Very nice words written by Thomas S. at Weakling Child, on both the VSNJE-album and the Auton/VSNJS-show in Stockholm (with grain loving photos):

Något som dock provocerade klarinettälskaren Mårten bortom sans var att Viktor mot slutet tog fram detta instrument, ställde den bredvid laptopen och lät bli att spela på den. Något slags statement kanske?

Very nice and well written piece of criticism was published in Swedish folk music paper Lira:

Phillies got it!

2008-10-30T09:19:00.003+01:00

What a season!

Ain't no stopping us now (Phillies version)" (*.mp3)

THE PHILLY PHANATIC, HE'S JUST AS MEAN!

A link for the Swedes.

We did this thing and we did it good

2008-10-28T23:41:00.002+01:00

Full tour recap coming soon, but for now enjoy the photographic documentation:
Structures Sonores Fall Tour 2008.

Interview up @ It's a trap!

2008-10-20T10:18:00.002+02:00

Check it out.

It's a free fall...

2008-10-19T12:09:00.002+02:00

¶ Auton will perform at the following venues in late October:

¶ 23/10 Copenhagen: Det Poetiske Bureau, Griffenfeldsgade 52, Nørrebro

¶ 24/10 Malmö: Cafe Simrishamnsgatan 3

¶ 25/10 Gothenburg: Koloni: Dansbyrån, Oskarsgatan 6. (with a few other musical acts)

¶ 26/10 Stockholm: Kulturhuset Lava

Accompanied by V Sjöberg New Jazz Solos.

Go Phils!!!

2008-10-16T14:11:00.001+02:00

Program, October 16th

2008-10-15T12:41:00.002+02:00

V. Sjöberg New Jazz Ensemble
16:e oktober 2008
Jazzklubben Nefertiti, Göteborg

Kvällens repertoar:
"Colors"
(V. Sjöberg)
"At the Department of Forgotten Songs"
(J. Lekman)
"Hyllningsloopar"
(H. Ljudfors)
"Garden Ride"
(V. Sjöberg)

Kvällens ensemble:
Johan Gustavsson, elektrisk gitarr & pianet
Emelie Jonazon, saxofon
Per Larssson, piano
Jonas Odhner, elektrisk gitarr & pianet
David Sjöberg, elektrisk gitarr
Frida Thurfjell, saxofon
samt kapellmästare Viktor Sjöberg

Oh snap!

2008-10-15T10:38:00.004+02:00

Great review of the Geiger festival in Göteborgs Posten two days ago by Magnus Haglund. Get at your boy DJ Google for what would probably be a nonsensical translation. It's not available online, so I'm posting it here.

När musiken blir en gemenskap

Geigerfestival

Brew House, fredag, lördag

Det är en uppfordrande inledning på en festival för experimentell och gränsöverskridande konstmusik. Avantgardenestorn Sten Hanson, född 1936, framför sin performanceklassiker "Skärp dig för fan!". Det är ett stycke som inte bara är en förtvivlad uppmaning till koncentration och inre samling. Utan också, på ett härligt sätt, håller räfst och rättarting med de konst- och livsinställningar som stryker medhårs och är allmänt blodfattiga.

Festivalen som helhet pekar in mot de dimensioner som är själva
kraftkällan i Sten Hansons stycke. Här gjuts nytt liv i vad som kan
betecknas som en modernare modernism, en uppdaterad och underjordisk version av de senaste 50 årens experimenttraditioner inom kammarmusik, electronica, performancekonst och friform. Man behöver inte anpassa sig för att nå fram. Ett kompromisslöst men levande uttryck kan vara just det som skapar känslomässig kontakt.

Allra bäst under denna festival, som i år arrangeras för andra gången av den oberoende föreningen Geiger, är inte de enskilda uttrycken utan själva stämningen, den öppna och generösa atmosfären. Det är häftigt att något som det etablerade musiklivet betecknar som otillgängligt och elitistiskt kan dra en så stor publik, och att den samlade effekten just blir en anda av tolerans för det avvikande, det sökande, det som inte går att kategorisera.

Starkast intryck, förutom Sten Hansons två framträdanden med en
höjdpunkt i det lika bisarra som gripande bekännelseverket Rännsten, gör konserterna med Lasse Marhaug, Viktor Sjöberg , Fredric Bergström och Mattias Petersson. Genomgående handlar det om en mänsklig närvaro och en koncentration i ögonblicket som får ljuden att skapa en alternativ rumslighet. Det är inte en stilfråga i första hand; steget från Lasse Marhaugs extatiska noisebrus till Viktor Sjöbergs minimalistiska konceptjazz är mycket långt. Det som de har gemensamt är snarare en saklighet i förhållande till det klingande materialet, en torrhet som är sin egen sensualism.

Alla unga ansikten i publiken, alla vidöppna öron, till exempel när
Viktor Sjöberg låter Paul Simons röst från ett av Gracelandspåren glida ihop med de stramt behärskade och genomgående melodiska kompositionerna: så tydliggörs en gemenskap och en humor som är tillåtande, kommunikativ och kärleksfull. Så blir världen större och Göteborg framstår som en genuint spännande plats att befinna sig på, och leva i.

Magnus Haglund

Auton - "Slagskepp" / Internet Shop Launch

2008-10-13T13:17:00.001+02:00

This is the world premier of the music video to Auton's "Slagskepp".
It was directed and shot by Sven Sjöberg and edited by Viktor Sjöberg.
This is one of the fourteen songs featured on the Auton long player which is now for sale in the Structures Sonores Internet Shop.

That's right, I am finally launching a more proper store where I in addition the Structures Sonores releases am selling my own albums released on other labels, compilations and small specials. This is also where all future limited edition products will be available. I am also thinking about selling stuff from other labels that are somehow related to the movement.
But for now, enjoy!

Canal smarts

2008-10-09T21:37:00.003+02:00

* An article on me was featured in Sweden's biggest newspaper Dagens Nyheter. Read it here. (It's in Swedish of course, but Google Translator delivers a decent if sometimes a bit outrageous translation.)

An egg that I cooked in Chicago.

* The wedding show in Chicago was one of my favorite gigs ever! So much fun. Thank you Graham and Rebecca and all my other new friends. And this is the moment where I announce that I will be available to DJ any wedding anywhere. Drop me a line at the address found in the sidebar to the right. I am very competent and far from extremely expensive.

* String of shows coming up:

11 Oct V. Sjöberg New Jazz Quartet @ Geigerfestivalen, Göteborg

16 Oct V. Sjöberg New Jazz Ensemble @ Nefertiti, Göteborg

Mini Tour with AUTON as V. Sjöberg New Jazz Solos:
October 23 Copenhagen: Det Poetiske Bureau, Griffenfeldsgade 52, Nørrebro (VSNJS TBC)
October 24 Malmö: Simpan/Simrishamnsgatan 3
October 25 Gothenburg: Koloni (tba) (Viktor Sjöberg DJ set)
October 26 Stockholm: LAVA Kulturhuset

* New smashing Structures Sonores WEB SHOP coming extra soon.

* The new Mitch Hedberg CD is golden as expected.

Auton Promos

2008-10-09T21:27:00.004+02:00

Hey hey! I sent out a big batch of promos today (well actually, copies of the actual record in all its glory). If you feel that you might be missing from the Big Structures Sonores Promo List and would like to hear the record and write about it, talk about it, broadcast it and use it in your upcoming blockbuster movie, please write me at viktorsjoberg AT gmail.com and I will send you a copy. In fact I will even include a printed version of the fabulous one sheet which is presented below.

---

Artist: Auton
Album title: Any Where Out of the World
Format: Compact Disc
Catalogue #: Structures Sonores #2

This trio has amazed me ever since I first heard their music back in 2004, when Douglas Holmquist sent me three songs that he had recorded with his friends Rikard Heberling and Petter Samuelsson. The music that I later came to know as Auton meant a departure from the synthesizer driven energetic pop that Douglas and Rikard had a hand in creating as part of their previous band, Dr. Higgins, but although Auton was much more contemplative both groups shared the same strong sense of melody and clever arrangements.

"Any where out of the world" is a document of what could be accomplished in the early days of the 21st century in a small country up north.

In the liner notes to this album Petter Herbertsson writes (in Swedish) about how when he heard the first Auton release, a three inch CD-R ep, he put it in his top three list of the best records ever recorded in Sweden. If you listen to this album (which includes these original recordings along with fresh beauty) I think you will come to the conclusion that Herbertssons use of words is not in the least bit exaggerated. In fact, when I heard this same release I was totally floored. I couldn’t believe that I had met the people that had created this music and even more so, I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that this marvellous music was released on a CD-R in an edition of 50 copies.
‘Cause really, even though you - just like me – have bought or been given numerous underground releases where you have thought “this is great!”, with most of them it is still possible to see why they are releases that will remain important to only a select few. (Maybe for other people this CD will constitute such a release, and that’s fine!) But every once in a long while you come across things that goes well beyond that and you wish that you could somehow share this unique experience with everyone. Releasing this CD is my attempt to do just that. Even if I never release another album I will years from now be able to look back on this moment and know that once upon a time I made the music of Auton available to the public and that will make me feel happy and content.

Download this Kopia relase

2008-09-16T11:55:00.002+02:00

My dear friend Douglas Holmquist just released two songs on Stockholm based label Kitty Litter mp3 and you should get them. Check out the intricate rhythmic patterns of "Circles" = ahead of the game.

Praise gosh

2008-09-11T19:30:00.002+02:00

I found out this morning that a new Mitch Hedberg album was released this past Tuesday. I have already placed my order and I am excited beyond words.
Check it out here.

This is what Mitch's wife Lynn Shawcroft has to say about it all:

Hey. Hows it going?

The name of this CD - Do You Believe In Gosh? was a line that Mitch wrote in a notebook. I read it shortly after he died, and, well, it just kinda kept turning around in my head ever since. I like it . . . I love it.

I hope that you are excited to hear Mitch tell some more jokes, 'cos here they are. In early 2005 Mitch was working on and figuring out new material for a CD he was hoping to record at the end of the year. He passed away that March, but luckily we taped some shows he did at the Improv in Ontario, CA in january '05, and this album is pulled from those recordings. . . It's just a show he did with some new jokes, some ideas and just some plain ol' fucking around. A live comedy show is like that.

We'll never be able to hear what would have been Mitch's final vision for the record, but hopefully you'll enjoy the closest thing we can get to it.

Mitch said that he got into comedy so that he could always wear his shirt untucked. Especially while he worked. He was the most generous guy I have ever met and I thank him for leaving us the sound of his voice, his laugh, and his funniness.

Untuck your shirt,
Lynn
July 2008

Learn to work the saxophone

2008-09-10T14:48:00.002+02:00

Deacon Blues (zShare)

Joni the realest

2008-09-07T22:35:00.003+02:00

I know that everyone already loves Joni Mitchell but since I've really started to listen to her I find that few things touch me the way her songs do.
I'm posting a song that's not even one of my favorites, even though it's fantastic from start to finish. There's this line in there that just gets me. The way she goes from "got germs" to "got Joni". ~~Total~~ momentary insanity and desperation expressed in a heartbreakingly beautiful way.

"...tell those girls that...you've got Joni.
She's coming back home."

"Blue Motel Room" (zShare)

On the importance of style

2008-09-06T23:52:00.003+02:00

The new Brian Wilson

2008-09-04T21:01:00.003+02:00

Of course it's such an easy win in a way. If you name a song "Southern California", I will at least try to like it.
It is a very beautiful song though.

Truth be told, the way the lyrics rely on the nostalgia of Brian's famous life story only works about 75% of the time and when it doesn't it's kind of way over the top, but there is definatly some real magic here too.

Tailwinds
will spin
down the pacific coast

The short vibraphone passage after the first chorus reminds me of my friend Douglas and the fact that his friend played on the Smile tour. That is one excellent vibraphone too.

Love songs
pretty girls
I didn't want it to end

There's a lot of things going on when you hear an old Brian Wilson sing those lines. The teenager seen by the old man, who in a way still seems to believe in those teenage dreams.
At the same time it's just an old man delivering what is expected of him, the way all artist eventually end up being tired bodies singing the songs that they wrote when they were young. They evoke the image of the present day Brian Wilson the way he acts in interviews, but at the same time his dignity is fully intact. This is kind of a pointless paragraph because I can't seem to explain it well enough, but I guess I just wanted to highlight the fact that these lines (and the way they are delivered) hold more than meets the eye.

In the final part of the song the back up singers evokes the feeling of "Our prayer"-type things along with the spirit of the choir in Alice Coltrane's "Om Supreme" and it's something that I would have liked to do on my upcoming album.

Southern
Cali
fornia

Oh oh oh
it's magical
glad it happened to me

Listen to it here.

Things

2008-09-03T20:51:00.003+02:00

The minuscule gestures and strangely impersonal piano phrases of 'Freee? I Can't Even Spell The Word' actually offer one of the more 'boisterous' moments on this sublimely slight and considered album, and even the most intense passages here will require either your full attention or a supremely cranked volume knob.

A short but pretty sweet review of the V. Sjöberg New Jazz Ensemble album at Boomkat. It's sold out there but you can get it through a lot of other mailorders, listed here.

Another fine review is to be found at Mapsadaisical:

It is (...) a thing of great beauty and deceptive simplicity, two ideals well worth fighting for.

As mentioned in the previous post, the Auton album is on it's way and it just arrived at the doorstep of the Structures Sonores offices and it looks smashing. The official release date is set to October 1st and promo copies shall be going out shortly. If you are a writer or some other form of intriguing personality and you want to offer your opinion of this release to the public, email me at viktorsjobergATgmail.com and I'll send you a copy.

The aforementioned Auton minitour is in the works and right now it looks like this:

Saturday October 25: Gothenburg (More information and acts TBA)
Sunday October 26: Stockholm, Kulturhuset LAVA (with some sort of V. Sjöberg Jazz Happening)

In the meantime, hit up the Auton myspace for samples of the album of the year.

Other excitement includes a near completed mix of the long delayed Ring Snuten EP and a performance at the Geiger festival in Gothenburg alongside the talent of Emelie Jonazon, Frida Thurfjell and Richard Widerberg.

Lastly, I am so so psyched for my upcoming show in

(Image stolen from http://somuchpileup.blogspot.com/ a great collection of vintage design. My favorite, not surprising, is this Amtrak poster.)

Some Structures Sonores News!

2008-08-25T16:18:00.007+02:00

Almost to the day two years after our first release, the Sonores "Elefanten" album, I am finally here to bring you some very good news. Structures Sonores are proud to be able to present a glorious addition to our roster; Auton.

Auton has amazed me ever since I first heard their music back in 2004, when Douglas Holmquist sent me three songs that he had recorded with his friends Rickard Heberling and Petter Samuelsson.
Auton was, along with Conduo Orchestra and a few others, really the main reason that made me want to release a compilation of contemporary Swedish music. You'll see this compilation, "While We're Learning to Forget", mentioned below. This CD will perhaps never see the light of day, as the debut album of Auton, called "Any where out of the world" is a so much stronger document of what could be accomplished in the early days of the 21st century in a tiny country up north. It something genuine and heartfelt and to me it is something truly original.

More information shall follow shortly. We're aiming at an early October release date, including a small Swedish tour.

That's the cover art...brace yourself for the final visual experience...it's going to be trancendental.

And it's http://structuressonores.com/label for those that might not be in the know.

An escalator can never break

2008-07-13T05:58:00.003+02:00

I started a Mitch Hedberg tribute pool on flickr, collecting photos of "broken escalator" signs from all over the world. Please feel free to add your own.

Link: http://www.flickr.com/groups/792369@N20/

We're here

2008-07-11T05:03:00.002+02:00

Roadtripping from Escondido to Barstow to anywhere Calivada to Las Vegas to Williams, Arizona to the Grand Canyon to Sedona, Arizona.
We are currently residing in Sedona. It kind of sucks compared to the greatness that was Williams but it's still cool.

Johan Gustavsson

2008-07-08T18:35:00.001+02:00

Just letting you all know that the beautiful songs that this young man is singing is all I need to listen to right now.
Best up and coming vocalist of the year.

Hear it and believe it type thing.

Only a fool would think that you can tie down a hurricane.

Garden strings

2008-06-30T06:38:00.001+02:00

Here's a few words from sunny California.
I've been working on finishing the album that will be released as "Breakfast in America" (I used to refer to it as "Foursquare") and today I was working with some very soft strings (originally played by Marla Hansen) and as I was doing this the song of the crickets and an assortment of other noises crept through the screen door and became a crucial part of the piece. So I took my computer outside and placed it on an old metal bench and let the strings perform a duet with nature. That duet recorded and was later played back and recorded in the same place. This recording isn't really a reflection of what the album is going to sound like, but I like the fact that it has both a raw as well as a sacral quality to it. And at times it sounds almost like an exotic relative of the "Guldheden" song that me and Jonas recorded together, featured on Fang Bomb's "Gothenburg 08" compilation.
Here it is: Garden Strings (mp3, zShare).

2008-06-13T01:41:00.002+02:00

Two new reviews from Swedish Sonic magazine:
V. Sjöberg New Jazz Ensemble
"Gothenburg 08" (Fang Bomb compilation) (more words and information here)

Been listening back to a recording session that we did with the Jazz Ensemble while rehearsing for the show in February and it sounds very promising. It needs some slight alterations, but the magic is present. Those saxophones...

Frida Thurfjell "in the studio"

California is just a week away now.

This is also coming closer by the minute.

Ok...

2008-06-05T22:18:00.001+02:00

...I did (and discovered) this gag at the release party celebrating this record but I feel that it really deserves a much larger audience. ("This joke was on the first CD, but I added a new line so I can't fucking rob you of this one!")
Yeah, and they are two brilliant records too. Buy the bottom one here.

Getting ready for summer

2008-05-29T19:23:00.001+02:00

Been working on the album today and a new demo is up at the my.space. Granted, it is a small piece to a much larger puzzle, but that does not make it insignificant. This recording features the talent of Marla Hansen.

2008-05-24T18:54:00.003+02:00

This looks promising!

--

Hey all, I am currently on stage in Galway, Ireland awaiting soundcheck. I think we've probably played around 55 shows this year and there are only two left; Galway and Dublin. It feels weird to end this journey in a place like this...I think New York, San Francisco or Gothenburg would be much more appropriate. But that's the way love goes.

--

Here's the information you need if you want to buy the V. Sjöberg New Jazz Ensemble album:

European Union

World

"Foursquare"/"Breakfast in America" + more

2008-05-03T23:00:00.004+02:00

Only the brave RSS'ers read this nowadays but whatever.

Reminder:
The rhythmic/melodic elements of the last two Cornelius albums, the desert guitar elements of the Friends of Dean Martinez (examplified in the soundtrack to "Fast Food Nation"), classic American rock. It all started there and went somewhere else ---

V. Sjöberg New Jazz Ensemble reviews: Göteborgs Posten, Heathen Harvest.

V. Sjöberg New Jazz Ensemble live in Gothenburg Sweden on the 16th of October.

Live at Webster Hall, New York City, United States of America

2008-04-08T05:46:00.001+02:00

Philip Glass was there!

It was a triumphant end to a great journey.

Stopping and going and stopping and going

2008-04-02T01:37:00.001+02:00

A hot mess of cellphone photos. Some sort of words shall appear once the smoke clears.

Daily Dolores shot this in Brussels last night

2008-02-29T16:56:00.001+01:00

http://www.flickr.com/photos/dailydolores/

Not only does he escort me to the police station in the middle of the night, he shoots amazing shots.

going

2008-02-29T11:47:00.003+01:00

I'm in Brussels, going to Antwerpen in a little bit. It has been hectic so far, the road has been long and the nights have been short. But it has been really great too. My wallet got stolen last night here in Brussels which for me personally has slightly dampened the mood, but it'll work out somehow I guess. With this in mind, Antwerpen should be magic tonight.
Check the flickr for some photos and stay tuned for more.

(I'll get up on answering emails asap! Sorry about that.)

The truth

2008-02-25T19:14:00.000+01:00

See you later.

2008-02-15T12:02:00.001+01:00

TACK / THANK YOU!

2008-02-13T23:06:00.001+01:00

Saturday was simply beautiful. Thank you for playing and or listening. Thank you!

If anyone has photos or recordings from the show, please let me know!

The V. Sjöberg New Jazz Ensemble record is out, get in touch with info (AT) idealrecordings (DOT) com if you want to get it. I am very proud of this product and of everyone that helped out to make it happen.

I'll be bringing these on tour with me too, in case that you want to bring home some slow jazz from the Jens Lekman experience.

I love my band.

One

2008-02-09T12:18:00.001+01:00

It is alive.

2008-02-08T13:57:00.001+01:00

Click this picture

2008-01-28T09:24:00.001+01:00

Den 9:e februari igen

2008-01-24T07:10:00.001+01:00

Arco (Skåne)

(Pressbild här.)

Arco är Douglas Holmquist och Johan Gustavsson. På Hagateatern kommer de att visa prov på hur det kan låta när den nya generationens chosefria improvisationsmusiker väver magi. Både Douglas och Johan har minst sagt gedigna meritlistor. Förutom att de tillsammans har spelat extremt glesa tongångar i The Roaring och jordbrumsrock i Alina har Holmquist sitt moderna dansmusikprojekt Kopia och har dessutom del i tre av Sveriges allra finaste orkestrar; Auton, Dr Higgins och Testbild! Johan Gustavsson har å sin sida en anmärkningsvärd diskografi, där varje utgåva – oftast under namnet Tsukimono – har det gemensamt att de utstrålar en unik, oresonlig passion.
Det här kommer att bli en väldigt fin upplevelse.

---

Kompletterande information:

Koloni och Structures Sonores presenterar:

V. Sjöberg New Jazz Ensemble
Variam
Arco

Film: "Cry of Jazz" (Edward Bland, 1959)
DJ: Gustav Rosengren

+ bar & mat

Denna afton firas releasen av V. Sjöberg New Jazz Ensembles skiva
"Do Nothing 'Til You Hear From Me" som släpps av iDEAL recordings!
Ett exemplar av skivan ingår i biljettpriset!

Lördag 9:e Februari 2008
Hagateatern
Södra Allégatan 2 (Vid Järntorget)
Entré: 80 kr inkl skiva!
kl 18-24 (filmen börjar 18.30)
Ålder 18 år
Förköp: Vänder sig om
www.kolonigbg.se

Found these photos.

2008-01-19T11:42:00.001+01:00

Me, age 12.
Good stuff.

Filed under crafty greatness, DIY-culture, pop music.

Auton

2008-01-14T12:27:00.001+01:00

Watch for it!

09 02 2008: Extending the music!

2008-01-13T23:04:00.001+01:00

V. SJÖBERG NEW JAZZ ENSEMBLE LIVE!
9th of February - Hagateatern - Göteborg.
RECORD RELEASE PARTY.
Additional acts TBA.
More information soon.

Feeling/Feelings

2008-01-03T00:13:00.001+01:00

Check it out.
2008 börjar någonstans där 2007 slutande; LYSANDE.

Västerås

2007-12-24T00:56:00.001+01:00

The darkest of woods.

Justified Ancients

2007-12-23T13:05:00.001+01:00

These songs are to me some of the most important songs of 2007. Some of them came out this year, other songs are old but made a significant mark this year. I guess some of them are related to doing dj-sets in America, others to personal experiences...sometimes both.
It's all totally awesome music.

I made a few CD:s with these songs on them. 10 copies to be distributed in a somewhat random manner.

Download half of these songs here (zshare).

Download the other half here (zshare).

More going going going coming up

2007-12-21T10:50:00.001+01:00

Here's a few of the dates that I'll be playing as a part of the Jens Lekman band in 2008:

feb 15 - Copenhagen, Denmark - Vega (small hall)
feb 16 - Berlin, Germany - Lido
feb 18 - Turin, Italy - El Barrio
feb 19 - Ravenna, Italy - Teatro Rasi
feb 20 - Geneve, Switzerland - PTR-Usine
feb 21 - S:t Gallen, Switzerland - Palace
feb 22 - TBA
feb 23 - Munich, Germany - Atomic Café
feb 24 - Frankfurt, Germany - Mousonturm
feb 25 - Nijmegen, the Netherlands - Doornroosje
feb 26 - Amsterdam, the Netherlands - Paradiso (small hall)
feb 27 - Paris, France - Nouveau Casino
feb 28 - Brussels, Belgium - AB Club
feb 29 - Antwerp, Belgium - Trix
mar 1 - Cologne, Germany - Gebäude 9
mar 2 - Hamburg, Germany - Molotow

may 9-11 - Camber Sands, UK - All Tomorrows Parties (as curated by Pitchfork)
May 16-18 - Minehead, UK - All Tomorrows Parties (as curated by Explosions In The Sky)

Hope to see you around.