The new Kiki Pau album "Pines", now available for streaming/purchase via Bandcamp and SoundCloud. Recorded by Kia Sofia in Helsinki and then sent to Stockholm to be mixed by Gustav Ejstes of Dungen. I haven't listened yet myself, but the tracklist promises four long songs which is quite a departure from the band's previous work, so I'm definitely intrigued.
The Illegal Trading Federation are a new Swedish synthpop act from featuring members from MF/MB/, among others, and "Eternity Saturday" is their debut EP.
Swedish artist Simon Ryman is blogging the release of his new album "Dawg", posting samples along the way: http://simonryman.tumblr.com/
For folks looking to jump on the Lower hype train, I hear that the dude from Cult of Youth will be doing a domestic repress of their 7".
Off-topic, but interesting: The New York Times reports on Sweden's experiment of lending out the @Sweden Twitter account to a random person every week: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/11/world/europe/many-voices-of-sweden-via-twitter.html
Not music-related, but worth mentioning: Norwegian film "Turn Me On, Dammit!" ("Få meg på, for faen") was pulled from the upcoming schedule at a theater in Tuscaloosa, AL following complaints from local clergy who, mind you, have not seen the film and are objecting to it based solely on their impression of the trailer and their understanding of the premise: http://www.al.com/entertainment/index.ssf/2012/06/norwegian_director_responds_to.html
Go America!
Finnish indie label is celebrating their first birthday by offering up their entire catalog for free streaming via SoundCloud: http://soundcloud.com/soliti/sets
A Nighthawk, the husband/wife musical duo of Ted Malmros (Shout Out Louds) and Sarah Snavely (Dag för Dag), have announced that their long-awaited debut EP "Until I faltered I wasn't free" will be officially released on June 27 via Stockholm-based all-star label collective and will be available both as a digital download and on vinyl.
has announced the signing of Nexus Kenosis, a new project from Swedish industrial/noise master Henrik Nordvargr Björkk (Pouppée Fabrik, MZ.412, Nordvargr, etc.) which will also function as a multimedia collective of sorts. The debut album is finished and will be released in early fall.
Though I'm firmly in the camp of "who the fuck cares what that racist murderer Burzum says or does in 2012," Pitchfork has a fairly decent writeup of his latest record that also does a decent job of addressing his shittiness as a person head-on: http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/16640-umskiptar/
"Roundkick" is the first single from The Embassy's long-awaited upcoming album. Buy the mp3 + a t-shirt here.
Danish duo Jetsi Kain have been officially picked up by and will be releasing their debut single "I'm in control" on June 25.
Swedish pop act Ljusår just released a new split single with an interesting concept: on the a-side they perform a faithful modern rendering of the early 80s tune "Kärlek och hat" by postpunk act Brända Barn and on the flip we get the original. Check it out via Spotify.
A new video from Revolvo? Yep, the band is back with a new, self-released album called "The end starts here" that came out in April. Who knew? Not I.