The Seven Mile Journey – Notes for the Synthesis (2011) (AWESOME !!!)

Genre : Post-rock, Denmark
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Tracklist :

1. Departures (02:00)
2. The Alter Ego Autopsies (20:09)
3. Simplicity has a Paradox (10:43)
4. The Engram Dichotomy (08:45)
5. Transits (05:26)
6. The Etiology Diaries (13:12)

The Seven Mile Journey is a post-rock band from Denmark, which has worked with instrumental music since 1999, and whose debut album The Journey Studies was released in 2006. The basis of the music are dynamic shifts and gloomy sounds, long and intense sound surfaces, which invite the listener to absorption.

Notes for the Synthesis is constructed of 6 unified tracks moving through gloomy and melancholic passages to intense and captivating soundscapes. Each track tells its own tale in the overall storyline, inviting the listener into the role of narrator and interpretor of the instrumental introverted musical journey.

The album further explores The Seven Mile Journey´s musical approaches and concepts deeper than ever before, along with combining these with new ones. Through this the band creates new layers in their music and is intensifying and broadening the overall dimensions and expression in the songs, in the sound of The Seven Mile Journey, and in the new album as a whole.

Under Byen - Alt Er Tabt (2010) (AWESOME !!!)

Genre : Experimental, Electrocoustic, Female-Vocal, Denmark
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Tracklist :

01. 8
02. Territorium
03. Alt er tabt
04. Sa?ledes
05. Ikke latteren men ojeblikket lige efter
06. Unoder
07. Konstant
08. Er noget smukt glemt findes det muligvis endnu
09. Kapitel
10. Protokol

Under Byen are a Danish band founded in 1995 mainly by Katrine Stochholm and Henriette Sennenvaldt.

Under Byen (Danish for “Below the City”) are known for producing their own unorthodox interpretation of rock (but it could also be indie, folktronic, trip-hop, post rock or… something else). They rarely use guitars. Instead their soundscape is dominated by piano, cello, violin, electrically-distorted saw, organ, drums and percussion. A somewhat different vein of post-rock, infused with jazzy, folky and classical elements. An important part of the music is also the voice of Henriette Sennenvaldt, whose poetic Danish lyrics add a further mysterious allure to the mix.

The 1999 debut album “Kyst” impressed music critics, who applauded the band for creating their own style and tone. The second album “Det Er Mig Der Holder Træerne Sammen” (2002) was equally praised and has grown to become a hallmark for the band and helped reach a wider audience in Denmark and elsewhere. In 2004 it was re-released outside Denmark. In 2006 the band released their album “Af Samme Stof som Stof” to rave reviews.

Far from being a mainstream act Under Byen has nevertheless attracted a growing devoted fan base following the release of their two albums and intense live shows.

Under Byen’s influences are very diverse. Leadsinger Henriette Sennenvaldt has been quoted as saying she was inspired by traffic. And if “Kyst” would be said to have a theme it would probably be water and harbours. They rarely cite any direct musical influences, but on occasion band members have expressed their fondness for artists such as Stina Nordenstam, Björk, Tori Amos, Sigur Rós, Tom Waits, Mogwai, Mark Hollis and Talk Talk. The band also have strong similarities with Portishead.

Alcoholic Faith Mission - 421 Wythe Avenue (2009) (AWESOME !!!)

Genre : Electronica, Electrocoustic, Folk, Pop, Ambient, Experimental, Post-rock, Denmark
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Tracklist

01 Theme From Soft Ice Cream Products
02 Gently
03 Nut In Your Eye
04 We All Have Your Shortcomings
05 Escapism
06 Guilty Scared Eyes
07 Painting Animals In Watercolors
08 Someone Else
09 Did You Eat
10 Sweet Evelyn
11 Time

Denmark has established itself as a sanctuary for offbeat pop musicians. I was easily won over by Slaraffenland's "Private cinema" and Larsen & Furious Jane's "Zen sucker", to name just a few, and it is within this eccentric, peripheral vein of pop music that Alcoholic Faith Mission exist. On "Gently", which begins (and continues on as) a lavish, beautifully layered composition, a female vocalist delicately sings: "Just 'cause I'm a whore, you know it doesn't mean I don't feel it when you fuck me." This strange juxtaposition of the beautiful and the base continues on in the next track, "Nut in your eye", a track that by name alone should be on a throwaway hip-hop album, but in substance falls not too far from the realm of Broken Social Scene. "421 Wythe Avenue", while moving away from the resplendent/sexual parallelisms, continues on musically in much the same way as the opening tracks -- ethereally layered electronic elements and vocals, solid acoustic and electric guitar work, all tethered to shifting centers and uncertain musical landscapes. There is a tragic beauty here, one that blends the emotional registers of Mixtapes & Cellmates and Moonbabies, yet remains quite distinctively an original construct, and it is this ingenuity that sets Alcoholic Faith Mission apart from many of their contemporaries.