Lehnberg (Sweden) – No News (single)

I do believe this is the first time in NMC for Swedish electronic music maestro (David) Lehnberg, who is a veteran – I suppose it’s fair to call him that now – of at least four bands, including The Deer Tracks, one of the first bands I ever heard in my little Scandinavian music adventure, which dates back to 2009 when they were at their peak.

He’s involved in many aspects of the arts, “exploring the endless possibilities of imagination.”

For relaxation he also runs a Fight Club in his home town of Gävle in Central Sweden so I’ll be sure to write something nice about him.

Truth to tell that’s fairly easy with Lehnberg at any time, anyway; he’s a true professional with years of experience of multiple styles although electronica, including that of the ambient variety, seems to be his thing these days hence his association with the Gävle-based label Lamour, which specialises in that sort of thing (and which is also home to the Norwegian SkarWorX, a regular in these pages although not recently).

The philosophy behind the recently-released ‘No News’ is simple enough to Lehnberg:

”According to the media, the world is made up of hate, violence, and suffering. It’s like someone forced you to watch horror movies all day, every day. Expose yourself to this doomsday bias regularly, and it will shape how you think and feel. You will get angry at the world. You will become suspicious. But most of all, you’ll end up afraid. The result is a fear–driven personality, hiding in the shadows, too cautious to live life. Fortunately, it’s reversible. When you stop watching the news, you will soon experience less anger, less anxiety, and less sadness. It’s one of the easiest ways to protect your peace.”

In some ways I agree with Lehnberg. There’s a lot of paranoia around for sure. In other ways I disagree. I watch a lot of the news, and I mean a lot, and plenty of it through alternative sources rather than the MSM. It pays to be clued up and know where the danger might be coming from. I fear it is going to be a very difficult year. You don’t have to become angry, just savvy.

But I suppose you couldn’t really write a song about ‘More News’ could you?

The song opens portentously with big chords over fast snappy percussion before progressing into what could be a theme to Arnie’s Running Manmovie, that character Buzzsaw closing in on Arnie and his jogging mate Amber with evil intent.

A variety of electronic and vocal effects join in until about 75% of the way through its collapses into a beautiful soft instrumental/vocal harmony to play it out; the sort of thing that might belong in the closing credits to the film Cocoon.

If the objective was to contrast the insanity of ‘the news’ with the tranquility of ‘no news’ then it works a treat.

But as I said, Lehnberg is a master of things like this now while Lamour’s ‘Slim Vic’ is equally adept at overseeing their production.

Find him on:

Website: https://www.davidlehnberg.com/