This makes me incredibly happy: The music of Andreas Soderstrom
I know we have some posts about Andreas Soderstrom scattered around this site, but I think it's time he had a dedicated thread. I'll start copy & pasting some of my previous posts into here, but for now, there's a new(ish) album of his online and it's making me so damn happy...
This has been posted on the Kning Disk bandcamp page. I'm going nuts over it...
Andreas Soderstrom - "Den lycklige vinnaren"
Here's a video for an album track...
I'm not gonna lie, there are times this album is so beautiful it almost brings tears for how happy this music makes me.
Here it is on Bandcamp - https://andreassoderstrom.bandcamp.com/album/den-lycklige-vinnaren
Comments
Hi.
I'm a pretty big fan of guitarist Andreas Söderström (who sometimes, unfortunately, goes by his initials of ASS).
He has a new album out called "Om Solen Väl Går Upp"
It's available on eMusic - http://www.emusic.com/album/andreas-soderstrom/om-solen-val-gar-upp/16481435/?_=1456881011256
It's a departure from his earlier recordings. It's far more electronic ambient drone-y than previous stuff, and the use of percussion and wind instruments is more prominent than previous works when it was just him and his acoustic guitar. It's two very long tracks and, in my opinion, quite beautiful and serene.
Here's a full track on the label's (Flora & Fauna) Soundcloud page...
The way that this first track builds into track two is just gorgeous.
You can find the album under his full name (or the link above).
His earlier works are on eMusic under his initials ASS.
Here's a link to one of four other albums he has on eMusic...
http://www.emusic.com/album/ass/my-get-up-and-go-just-got-up-and-went/11198337/
And here's an album track...
It's called "My get up and go just got up and went" and it's reflective of his earlier sound, where it's just his acoustic guitar, the occasional guest on a wind instrument and the occasional vocal track. He performs a cover of the theme from the movie "Escape from New York" which is just out of this world. The way trumpet and keyboard enter at just the right moments with the softest touch on the song "Vertical Spar" makes it one of my favorite songs from Soderstrom.
His self-titled album is also really good. His album "Salt Marsh" sees him expanding the instrumentation to other wind instruments and generating a more diverse folk sound. I really loved that album, but some of his hardcore fans didn't like how it drifted away from his solo guitar works. It's a reasonable opinion, even if I don't agree with it. His solo guitar stuff is so damn beautiful, it's easy to want him to never stop making that kind of album. Here's a link to where I posted more about "Salt Marsh" on this site...
http://www.emusers.net/forum/discussion/1000/ass-salt-marsh#latest
His album "4," which was his most recent until today, started to show signs of today's album with the increased electronics and the more ambient flourishes. Worth noting, though, that "4" also had some welcome touches of dissonance, too.
eMusic also offers a two-song EP with Soderstrom & Rickard Jäverling. It's nice peaceful music and well worth the very reasonable cost of one buck.
http://www.emusic.com/album/ass-rickard-javerling/no-love-lost-david/15308602/
But his newest, I'd recommend it to Peter Broderick and Brian Eno fans, definitely. I regret the absence of his acoustic guitar, but this is an album I'm gonna be playing along to the next sunrise I'm awake early enough to greet.
Because of this album, I had the greatest experience today, one of the best a music fan can have, and since you're an eMusic member and talk about music on a forum, you can all probably relate... I checked in on Soderstrom's site today just to see what he was up to. It had probably been 4-6 months since last I'd done that. And I discover that he was releasing a new album. And then I realized that the release date was TODAY. I immediately hopped on over here to emu and saw it was available for sale. I downloaded it immediately and now I'm spending the night just listening to it over and over. It's such a great feeling to discover new music from a favorite artist and to get caught up in the magic of This Is Music From Today. It's a new version of running to the music store on release day, just hoping that there'll still be a copy of the LP, cassette, CD, etc when you got there, then immediately hiking back home and beginning a marathon listening session.
I miss those brick & mortar experiences, but I also really enjoy their equivalent with digital and online purchases. I got to experience all of that today (at the end of a very long day) in a warm home on a snowy night, my cat snoring nearby, the new music playing and I get to chat online with people on a forum who will know exactly what I'm talking about and why it makes me happy.
Anyways, I just wanted to share that.
Cheers.
ps- I forgot to mention Johnny Dowd, as well.