STENLUND has appeared once before in NMC, with a song about cycling, or at least that’s how we interpreted ‘Cyclism’.
We noted that while his influences – coming mainly out of the synth and post punk eras in the early 1980s – were many he was already developing a personal style that is an amalgam of them but that it was at the same time at least majority owned by Stenlund, namely one of mild electronic dystopia.
Nothing too overt, while ensuring that whatever cataclysm he foresaw would be imprinted on your mind.
(In fact it has been suggested that his music points both towards and beyond the future envisioned by Aldous Huxley in Brave New World).
STENLUND hails from the Skutskär community in central Sweden, where most of the population lives in the Älvkarleby municipality within the province of Uppland—a region often called ‘the province of castles, ancient ruins, and runestones,’ while some live over the border in the Gävle municipality within Gävleborg County, where STENLUND was once the vocalist for The Bizarre Orkeztra, a pioneering band of the Swedish goth wave.
I’m familiar with this region in two ways. Firstly because several artists that have appeared in these pages hail from there, most notably Le Lac Long 814, a duo comprising Bengt Söderhäll and Daniel Östersjö, who sing poetry translated from Swedish into French. Yes, you read that right.
Secondly because I’ve travelled through it a few times on the train which wends its way to Gävle from Uppsala and back, sometimes in the early morning fog, and I often thought it a little mysterious, like Gandalf or Harry Potter was going to clamber on board at the next stop.
There are numerous other artists with similarly esoteric styles located there and although he is an electronic pioneer STENLUND slots nicely into their company with his atmospheric synth pop that on this new single, ‘Ghost’, shows shades of both Jean-Michel Jarre and Arcade Fire (think of their track ‘Sprawl II [Mountains Beyond Mountains]) in parts.
‘Ghost’ is one of two songs we were sent for review in advance of Halloween by different artists and their representatives. There may yet be more to come.
It’s an auditory exploration of autumn darkness, shrinking days, and lengthening nights but not of hauntings, apparitions and things that go bump in the night, relying on sweeping ambient qualities to capture the mood.
And it is metaphorical in context, designed as a nod to early electronic music while simultaneously looking to the future while channeling both the literal and figurative ‘ghosts’ of the coming winter chill through haunting synths and rhythmic progression.
Enjoy. And don’t have nightmares.
We have no social media links for STENLUND at present.
