Swedish master photographer, Krichan Wihlborg, took in the festival organised for Progress Productions’ twentieth anniversary. He has shared some of the pictures he captured of the label’s artists on stage, along with scenes from the night.
We have repeatedly described Karin My as “Sweden’s secret weapon.” Raised in the south of the country, she absorbed the futuristic sounds of Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream, sitting alone in a room with vinyl provided by a family friend. The kling-klang and ambient pads of German synthesists inspired her life in music: from busking in Gothenburg to sprinkling magical dust on the works of leading artists. My writes delicate and poignant songs of her own, but she has a reputation for transforming the material of collaborators with elegant alchemy.
The multi-instrumentalist is self-taught, having built up her knowledge in steps. As My told ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK in an interview:
From the money I got picking strawberries, I bought my first piano. Then I found a drum kit in a garage, got it for free and spent one year torturing the neighbours, but at least I got good enough to play drums and sing in a jazz n’ blues band, with some good old silver foxes. I then bought my first cello, learned how to use it and that was a long-time dream coming true.
My was “discovered” several times over, busking near Gothenburg’s largest shopping mall. Local promoters stopped to listen to her unplugged covers of futurepop bands, including Apoptygma Bezerk and VNV Nation. The TV4 channel included her in a feature about unusual street artists. Twice a Man’s Dan Söderqvist found her at an event where she appeared directly from her normal patch in an underpass. My’s modesty prevented her from pushing herself to the front of the pack, but it was clear from the beginning that her talent is something special.
10. Twice a Man feat. Karin My – High in the Clouds
Twice a Man are Swedish legends. They changed their name from Cosmic Overdose when they supported New Order, because the promoter thought it sounded too hippy-like. In fact, the band combined psychedelic and new wave elements in equal measure. Their sound has evolved over the decades, but the group continues to bear fruit that reflects their roots. My’s vocals blend to add generous notes that highlight the terroir.
9. Xenturion Prime – Distant Voices
The Swedish/Norwegian duo picked up My for their 2022 Prisma album, including her on this fragile, haunting track. The magic dust was sprinkled generously.
8. Carbon Based Lifeforms – Gryning
We know Johannes Hedberg and Daniel Vadestrid best as the amazing Thermostatic, but their ambient electronic work as CBL has gone on for longer and reached much larger audiences. My is one of their key collaborators, adding a sensitive touch that doesn’t overwhelm the base material.
7. Karin My – Mia och Tom
An acoustic cover of the classic Page track, slowed down by My and reduced to its core elements. Page regularly produce poptronica perfection, and this version shows off the quality of Eddie Bengtsson’s songwriting and My’s skills as a performer.
6. AEX – Endless Night
No, not the Christian metal act. This AEX is Æon deuX, the Danish group launched on Claus Larsen’s LÆBEL. My adds atmospheric cello here that is unmistakably her own.
5. Rekk feat. Robert Enforsen and Karin My – The Man in Grey
Recorded for the Rational Youth tribute, Heresy, this version of “The Man in Grey” was organised by Kevin Komoda with Elegant Machinery’s Robert Enforsen and My providing input.
https://on.soundcloud.com/fEr6E
4. Gasleben & Electric Friends – Sunday
Karl Gasleben of Twice a Man formed this side project to work with close friends and collaborators. My is one of his go-to artists, and she joins Peter Davidson to add vocals here.
3. 20Hz – Exit North
Erik Ångman is 20Hz. Of this track, we said in our review:
Exit North” approaches the sensibility of Ryuichi Sakamoto, with its considered but artful use of piano. The delicacy of the keyboard is supported by atmospheric cello work provided by Karin My – Sweden’s secret weapon. It’s a beautiful, enveloping track that unfolds like fine linen.
2. Machinista – Astrid
John Lindqvister wrote this song with his daughter in mind. Originally set to electronics by Richard Flow, the band decided to take it in a different direction. My’s contribution gave it the cinematic feel it needed.
1. Karin My – The Silence
My’s first solo album was released in 2022. Silence Amydala was a surprisingly restrained but unified set of songs. Crafted together with her producer, D. Kaufeldt, it was a very personal experience for My. As she explained to ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK, “Every story I tell has a grain or a mountain of truth to it.”
Dan Söderqvist is best known as the singer in Twice a Man. He is also a prolific artist in his own right, with not one but two new albums on release. A New Victorian Age captures some of Söderqvist’s unreleased instrumental music from the 1990s, demonstrating his work for video games and dance. Murmures is an installation work that was created to accompany the art exhibition of the same name in the summer of 2023. Between them is a space, both temporal and stylistic, that illuminates Söderqvist’s creative range.
A New Victorian Age includes early versions of the material that found its way into the soundtrack used in the three-dimensional video game, Kula World. Made by a Swedish studio for the PlayStation One in 1997, the game involved navigating a ball in a puzzle maze that grew in complexity as the player progressed. Söderqvist’s sound design was more progressive and trippier than a lot of soundtracks from that time, making extensive use of the Roland TB-303. It might have said “computer controlled” on the face, but the silver box was able to respond very well to human interaction. Söderqvist married it to soaring quitars and keyboards for an electro-acoustic journey that was a whole lot hipper than Mario’s own backing music.
The Kula World sketches are collected on the album together with material originally intended for the computer game, OBAFGKM, and the dance performance, Pleiades. Fans of Ozric Tentacles and Juno Reactor will find a lot to like in this set, but it is also essential for any follower of Twice a Man.
Murmures was originally recorded for the show of the same name at the gallery, La Part du Rève, in Perpignan, France. Consisting of twelve pieces, based upon portraits of 19th-century persons, the installation was created together with the French visual artist, Tempora Flow (aka Jenny van den Arend). Intended to be played in a quiet room at low volume, the material is based upon field recordings, gathered at a variety of locations, ranging from a fountain in Salamanca, Spain, a church in Greffeil, in the south of France, the Swedish island of Öland, and other sites across Europe. Over them is read a poem in Swedish by Eric Johan Stagnelius, “The Poet.” Each of the sections is based upon a graphic piece, reflecting the appropriate theme by Tempora Flow, which can be seen online at temporaflow.eu
Murmures contains contributions from Tempora Flow, Noiz Elfje, and Maria Ericsson. The field recordings flow into each other, while Söderqvist mixes them with synthesisers and reverb. Insect musicians call to each other while bells chime and water splashes. Birds and bees combine with voices and what might be sampled strings. The results are deftly handled, and Söderqvist’s sensitivity to both natural and human sounds keeps them in balance. It is a tightrope walk, but there is serenity on the other side.
Sweden’s Twice a Man were one of the most prominent groups of the Swedish New Wave. They emerged from the angular post-punk of Cosmic Overdose; creating a template of funky and experimental music mixed with ecological and social politics.
As this clip from a 1984 show demonstrates, their funkiness was never secondary. They continue to make excellent music to this day, but it is a joy to see them in regulation 80s clothes and with old school keyboards to hand.
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Sweden’s legendary act, Twice a Man, have released a tour of their output between the years 1982 and 2022. The material is collected on Songs of Future Memories, a 3-CD compilation from Germany’s Dependent label, with two new songs and thirty-two from the band’s extensive back catalogue. The physical edition also includes a 72-page hardcover book with notes from Ecki Stieg.
The importance of Twice a Man to Swedish and European pop and theatrical music cannot be overstated. From the point at which they transformed from Cosmic Overdose, at the insistence of New Order’s promoter, the band has led from the front; both in terms of their styling and in their messages about the social and natural environment. They might have changed their name, but the group – organised around the core of Karl Gasleben and Dan Söderqvist – didn’t give up their affinity for psychedelic soundscapes or explosions of surrealistic energy. Instead, they set up structures within which new sounds could be formed and social concerns could be channelled.
As this compilation shows, Twice a Man have taken a much wider perspective than many of their peers; adapting to the shifting sands of fashion while maintaining a Brechtian distance that prevents them from being pigeon-holed. Are they prog or new wave? For the theatre or the dancefloor? Do they look at internal psychology or social movements? The answer is: any and all of the above, depending on the moment. There is no one truth about Twice a Man, but there is an organising principle to their material: it isn’t like anything else.
From the proto-techno of “Russian Tractors” to the pulsing symphonic movements of “High in the Clouds,” this collection is a master-class in European electronic music. Spanning forty years of work, Songs of Future Memories draws on an exceptional tradition of experimentation and composition. The two new songs presented here, “Lotus” and “Dahlia,” emerge from that crib impressed with a unique inheritance. Twice a Man remain a work in progress.
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The legendary Swedish artists, Twice a Man, have announced a new compilation of their work. A three-CD set, Songs of Future Memories (1972-2922), with accompanying book, is now available for pre-purchase with an expected release date in January 2023. The label writes:
“Songs of Future Memories (1982-2022)” is the long overdue second anthology dedicated to the Swedish pioneers of electronic music, TWICE A MAN. On three CDs, the finest tracks from the 14 song albums have been collected and diligently remastered. The 7 instrumental works of the band’s catalogue have been deliberately left out of this project, which is intended to serve as a comprehensive musical guide through the band’s outstanding career spanning over 4 decades of groundbreaking works. In addition to the known material, the band has also added two new tracks.”
The included tracks are:
1. Move
2. Russian Tractors
3. Decay 04:06
4. Goat II
5. Balloons
6. Talking to the Wall
7. Observations From a Borderland
8. Fear
9. Across the Ocean
10. Distant Calls
11. Still in the Air
12. Divided Light
13. Tribal Ways
14. Back on Venus
15. Girl
16. Driftwood
17. Yellow Flowers
18. Crane Dance
19. Speed
20. Reality Built For Two
21. Shivanayama
22. Somebody Sang Your Name
23. Skylark
24. Shoe
25. Tranquil Moonlit Lake
26. Where Are You Now
27. Black
28. Presence
29. High in the Clouds
30. Cocoon 7 (Version)
31. Fireflies
32. Modern World
33. Lotus
34. Dahlia
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]SIlicon Teens once asked, “Why walk on the moon / if you could fly to the Sun?”
Twice a Man’s polymath, Karl Gasleben, is half way there. A Vessel Out of Here, the second solo album from Gasleben &Electric Friends, is an ark constructed with a frame of taught, tense rhythms. Around them, a scaffolding of synthetic textures supports vocals from collaborators, Anna Öberg, Peter Davidson and Daniel Kaufeldt. The result is a trip to the stars, powered by electricity and guided with a critical eye.
Out now on Bandcamp.
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We have described Karin My as Sweden’s secret weapon before. The Scandi songstress has most often been spotred adding magic to the recordings of other artists, such as the legendary Twice a Man. More recently, she has been working on her own material, edging towards a debut solo album.
“Winter Tree” is a other step towards that end. Her vocals float like filaments on the gentlest breeze, lingering above the snap of the rhythm track. The accompanying video gives a flavour of the seasonal mood that infuses the song.
Made together with Daniel Kraufelt, “Winter Tree” is Nordic noir with an emotional edge. The album is expected in February.
Lost and found, this video for Twice a Man’s “Back on Venus” demonstrates why the Swedish art band have been so influential. With reverb and rhythms at the fore, they were the psychedelic edge of new wave.
The images of an office worker climbing a hill of sand matter less here than the magical, post-prog rock that Twice a Man excel at, but they make you look and they invite you to think.
Like Wire, Twice a Man never make the same album more than once. Their sound might have consistent elements, but each release is an exploration of new combinations and treatments for them.
Like a stone exposed to the weather, time has changed Twice a Man, but their impermanence has been with us for a long time. Cocoon, their current album, has at least twenty predecessors, including some mighty classics of electronic and experimental music.
To keep things simple, every track is numbered: “Cocoon 1,” “Cocoon 2,” and so on. Each has its own distinctive features. “Cocoon 7” is distinguished by an energising combination of rhythms and Dan Söderquist’s vocals. “Cocoon 8” has psychedelic strings layered over a chugging, modulated pattern.
The overall effect is a sonic combination of nature and creation. “Cocoon 1” seems to invoke both the humming of bees and the sound of their industry. Hives aren’t places for solitary contemplation, and the work of different teams drowns out any individual sounds. The environment has its own rhythms, and the ebb and flow of activity changes the sounds.
Cocoon is an unconventional album from one of Sweden’s most unconventional bands. It makes for inspiring listening.
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