[ingenting] – “Dina händer ãr fulla av blommor”
One of my favourite songs from one of my favourite albums this year.


Little Big Adventure – “Happiest Times”

The Sound of Arrows – “Into the Clouds”

The Mary Onettes – Puzzles

Photo by Lennart Maschmeyer.

On rare occations, I discover music that is so right for me, – music that touches strings deep inside, and makes all my senses and feelings wake up. Tiny Ruins from New Zealand plays this kind of music.

It was a  friend of mine who asked me to check out Tiny Ruins‘ music some time ago, and  I am so glad I did. Now I’m hoping that you will check out her music too. Tiny Ruins is what Hollie Fullbrook calls herself when she writes and performs her intensely beautiful acoustic songs. She is a student in Wellington, and during her university years, she has made music for small theatre productions, played open-mic shows and made a lot of songs with her guitar in her bedroom.

There is a unique atmosphere in Tiny Ruins’ songs, and her vocals sound so timeless. It’s not music that screams “HEY, LISTEN!!!”, – it’s more quiet songs for rooms with dim lighting, late evenings, maybe with a good book as company.

As far as I know, Hollie has not released anything officially yet, but she has recently bought herself some home recording equipment, so let’s hope that we will see a release some time during 2010…

For now, you can listen to her beautiful songs on her myspace or download this little gem right here on Eardrums:

Tiny Ruins – The Death of a Russian

Isn’t this wonderful music?

Denmark’s Efterklang has given me so many wonderful musical experiences, – sometimes so strong that I connect some of their songs to times, places and I may even remember the weather on that specific day I listened and had the special experience. I’ve recently enjoyed watching and listening to their ambitious live-release “Performing Parades” (cd/dvd), where they performed their album Parades in full, accompanied by The Danish National Chamber Orchestra, in their hometown of Copenhagen. Now the band have released some interesting details about their upcoming third studio-album, Magic Chairs, which is set for release on February 22 on their own Rumraket-label in Scandinavia and on 4ad in the rest of the world.

As usual, the cover art is made by the Danish design and art-studio Hvass&Hannibal. Beautiful!

The band have also sent us a sneak-peak of the opening track on the album, “modern drift”. It’s a wonderful song, driven by repetitive pianos and beautiful strings, – and a lot more “pop” than I had expected, especially in the vocals. The band is quoted on the 4ad-site and they say this about the album:

“We are very proud of this record and feel that it introduces a new Efterklang sound. The songs draw inspiration from pop song structures, created and recorded with a live approach and we wanted to display every sound source clearly so that the listener can hear every ingredient of the music.”

I am so looking forward to February 22…

Have a listen:
Efterklang – Modern Drift

Here is the tracklisting:
1. Modern Drift
2. Alike
3. I Was Playing Drums
4. Raincoats
5. Harmonics
6. Full Moon
7. The Soft Beating
8. Scandinavian Love
9. Mirror Mirror
10. Natural Tune

Sweden’s Heart-Sick Groans has made a new video, and what a lovely video it is! The song in this video is  “Three Day Blow” from Heart-Sick Groans upcoming release, the seven song EP “Gentlemen, If you aint right, get right”. It’s directed by Henric Wallmark, – one of the members in the band. Drawn, cut-out and performed by Mads Peter Brandstrup Jensen’s class at the Drawing Academy at the Animation Workshop, Viborg, Denmark. Enjoy!

Once again, the people behind the Spoon Train Audio-label have made a compilation of independent pop from Oslo. The album is called “Oslo2″ and features 16 songs from 16 bands, – most of them are bands we already know, but some are completely new to us. This is the follow up to last years “Oslo!”, and this time they have managed to refine the pop-focus they have on these compilations. Less fuzz, more melody.

Before I start commenting on the music, I must give two thumbs up for the initiative. Compilations like this, where established artists stand next to completely unknown bands, is a great way to get new bands out to the public, and also a way to make the pop-scene stronger. The way they focus on independent pop-music gives us a varied, but consistent album. There are definitely ups and downs here, but it has become an album that you can put on and listen through without feeling the need to skip songs that don’t fit in. They all fit.

So, what bands can we find on this album? Lots of good bands! You can hear wonderful tunes from “old” favourites of mine, like The Little Hands of Asphalt, Norma Sass, My Little Pony, Hiawata!, Yoyoyo Acapulco, Nomber 5s, Children and corpse playing in the streets and Firetop mountain.

My favourites, however, are the songs from these artists:

Cold Mailman starts the show with the stunningly beautiful “Time is of the essence”, a song we also had on our own compilation “Summer’s here!” a year ago. The Oslo2-version is different, with added drums and an updated sound. I was very happy to see in the inlay that the mailman will deliver a new album in 2010. Great news!

Therese Aune is an artist I have heard about, but never heard. Her song “Chameleon” is worth buying the album for on its own. She should have been on those big stages with this! Her vocals are intensely strong and beautiful, full of colour and dynamics, and the piano-arrangements on this song fits the atmosphere perfectly. Definitely one on my top experiences on this album.

Einar Stray is a hidden gem in the Norwegian pop-scene, and even if he seem to do a lot of very interesting things, his name rarely gets into the big papers. On this compilation, he’s represented with “Arrows” from last years “Favors & fields” ep, – a classic song in my ears and one of the better and most interesting songs ever produced in my little country. Stray is like a northern mix between Sufjan Stevens, Sigur Ros,  The Books,  and Andrew Bird. His debutalbum will be released in 2011.

Go Fandango is one of the new names on this album, and their upbeat “End credits” leaves me wanting to hear more from the band. In all its pop-freshness it also carries some darker elements and some clear references to 80s indie.

Like Spinning‘s acoustic and folky “Crush (And Naivety)” was a song that played along without leaving the biggest marks the first times I listened to the album, but it is definitely a grower and I really LOVE this little song now. Like the before mentioned Einar Stray, Like Spinning’s main woman Kari Jahnsen leaves the melody in front, but adds a lot of interesting elements behind it. Interesting!

Casa Murilo is one of the new Oslo pop bands that I have very high hopes for. Their song “Murilo, I love you”  is one of the few I actually skip back to hear again and again. A lovely and super-catchy pop song.

Seppuku Zephyr Dance is another of the unknown names on the compilation, and another good one. Their dreamy, almost shoegazy (but not) song “Carousel” makes me think of the early days 4ad bands like Cocteau Twins or Lush, but also the less noisy sides of other Norwegian bands like Je Suis Animal and Maribel.

Monzano, – Sjur Lyseid from The Little Hands of Asphalt’s main band – give us a very good new song from their upcoming album on this compilation. On the beautiful “Cold Waters”, we can hear Lyseid in a duet with Thea Glenton Raknes, the singer in Norma Sass.

“Oslo2″ should be in the shops from today.

Here’s another favourite from the compilation, My Little Pony’s “The Capital of Norway”: