World Tour have come down from the snowy peaks with something golden. Ever since I first listened to some World Tour demos almost three years ago I knew I’d never stop pining for more. Over a year since their last single ‘Forever Tonight’, the Swedish three-piece is back with a lush pop gem, ‘Surreal’—and it is just that; the dark winter sky, brimming with stars, falling down. I can feel it.

"vill bara ooh fucka ur ooh" - nordpolen

nordpolen - oh oh

Sweden’s David Alexander is back with his latest single under his sun-soaked dream pop moniker Summer Heart. ‘Hit Me Up Again’ sways and pulses is all the right ways. It made me forget about all those little white flakes flickering outside my window— if only just for a moment. Check out Jonas Börjesson’s video for the track below. The single, which also includes the comparably blissful ‘Stockholm,’ is available over at David’s bandcamp. 

foto dei miei ricordi d’estate ☼ 

This weekend I made my way north— into a sea of grayness that wrapped itself around each snowcapped peak. I was there, watching snow roll down hillsides and settle in dark valleys, but if you took a close look into my eyes you’d have see the reflection of the soft streaks of some distant sunset. The Embassy's 2005 album Tacking filled my ears and brought me to some distant horizon. I’ve long thought that nine-track release was the Gothenburg duo’s Sunday best, but they’ve now resurfaced in the midst of a swedish winter with yet another fabulously breezy pop tune.

'Related Artist', the first single off their forthcoming full-length Sweet Sensation, bobs to the smoothest disco bass and wonderfully jangly guitar. Fredrik Lindson’s vocals, airy and unfeigned, round out the track… alongside a couple of animals (definitely some chirping birds and I counted at least three monkey whoop-gobbles). Perfect. Sweet Sensation, the legendary duo’s first new full-length in eight years is due out the 26th of February on The Embassy’s new label International and it brims with all those memories of places that always seem just a dream away. 

[photo taken june 2012. praiano, italy]

Sweden-born, Berlin-based duo Iberia rises up with their latest single ‘An Ending (Ascent).’ Maja Millner drapes her empyrean vocals and Alexander Palmestål crafts the effortlessly expanding instrumentals— they’ve got it all figured out. Despite their name, the two swedes’ latest tune resides just off the peninsula— in between the sea and the sky— a slow motion jam fit for one of those lengthy nights in Formentera— when everything melts in the moonlight and we move so slowly that you think the world might just have stopped.

This evening, after gadding about a shadowed forest, I found myself on top of a steep mountain. The sun had slipped behind the fading peaks that lined horizon.

Stockholm’s Ditt Inre brings back something familiar, something that we haven’t seen in a while. The first time I heard from these swedes I was watching a night pass in front of a crackling fire— spring was on its way, winter its way out.

Tonight the first flakes fell. My hill overlooking Granada became just another snowcapped point pinned to the falling fog. Look forward to Cascine's final release of the year. Ditt Inre's Inget Val / Din Röst arrives December 11th and it effortless welcomes winter home.

Oh tell me.

Postiljonen are back with yet another arcadian single. Whenever it’s almost been too long the Stockholm-based trio resurface with another reminder of their perfection. Their latest track ‘How Will I Know / All That We Had Is Lost’ kneads together the sun-soaked adventures of a carefree swedish summer and the apprehension of the shadow-streaked winter to come. As always, I’m left me wanting more from these swedes. Every time they release a new single I hope for some hint of an upcoming album, but I guess i’ll just keep  dreaming.

The forthcoming LP from Sweden’s Victoria Bergsman (aka Taken By Trees) is set to drop in October. But we mustn’t wait ‘til then to indulge in more swedish dreamscapes. Next week Victoria’s Dreams 12” arrives via Secretly Canadian. The release includes ‘Dreams,’ the first single off Other Worlds, as well as instrumental and dubbed-out versions of the track, courtesy of the Tough Alliance's Henning Fürst, who produced the full length. Listen to the 12” below.

Your best friends, Elin, Joakim

Here to let you know everywhere we wanna go.

I’m exhausted,  barely breathing, holding on to what I believe in.

This feeling, no ceilings

guided me back home

To my zone, 

to my throne in my Rome.

 People wanna talk but they ain’t sayin’ nothing

Oh baby, now I’m ready for something

And I got cameras in my face

I guess the revolution will be televised.

And I got 23 years of this

I just hope you’ll miss me a little when I’m gone

Gone

Back again with my mind on one thing

But you don’t wanna know

you just wanna hear me sing

Yeah

Children behave

that’s what they say when we’re together

Vi måste härifrån

Den här stan drar ned oss till botten av ån.

jj is back with your summer soundtrack. Elin and Joakim’s five-track free EP high summer is available, as always and forever, over at Sincerely Yours and below. 

Like the Zlatan, they soar— always wanting more.

• jj - high summer [.zip]

jj - 10
jj - High Summer

World Tour, the Swedish trio that crafted a most luscious EP which was released by Cascine earlier this year, is at it yet again. From a small village in northwestern Sweden, they bring us our latest indulgence. ‘Forever Tonight’ begins in a deep cavern, echoing a beclouded call from below— however, it soon opens up and spills out and into a heartfelt tune laced with ethereal melodies paired with a sort of transporting yet tangible simplicity of which World Tour is so familiar. ‘Forever Tonight’ will be released on Swedish label Emotion.

Stockholm’s Einar Andersson & Hampus Klint have emerged together as Ditt Inre under the veil of their sultry six-track EP, En Värld I Brand. The release will see the light of day May 29 on the ever-indulging bearer of good news, Cascine. The duo crafts a dreamy dance pop which at first gleams with sun-soaked ambivalence, but, at its depths, thoroughly realizes a steeping sensitivity.

The boats rocks as wind simmers the sails. The stars bob endlessly above. A haze rises like cool mist after a nighttime rain— the dark pavement warm still; the soft brume brims with the transient reverie of day.

-Jorden