KURYAKIN : Still Here
KURYAKIN : Still Here

KURYAKIN : Still Here

Kuryakin
life 1004
Rupture de stock
14,00 €
TTC

Petter and Johan has been making music under the name Kuryakin since 2003. They met at the university in Uppsala 2002. Petter nowadays live in Stockholm and Johan in Uppsala. The music is put together by Petter and Johan who mails samples and ideas to eachother and then play toghether a few times a month.

Année
Labels
Music
Support

 

Compact Disc

1. Take My Hand

2. Still Here

3. Snow

4. Rain

5. Peace of Mind

Seven-Inch

A. Onie

B. A Parade

During the early '80s, after punk had dispensed of the notion that there were rules which pop had a duty to obey, and nascent synthesizer technology gave more people than ever before the opportunity to produce music on their own, the indie underground and the mainstream charts became invaded by what was, until then, a relatively scarce configuration: the fully sufficient duo.

Of course, there had been duos before. But never had there been duos who created so much sound with so little means. Think early Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (recently the subject of great reappraisal), which made economy sound luxurious and pop singles sound like high art; or Soft Cell, whose records are some of the most subversive dancefloor fillers of all-time; or Pet Shops Boys, whose every sonic and aesthetic decision has been guided by a stubbornly exacting vision. Out of the spotlight, Eyeless in Gaza and Fantastic Something made marvelous music that reached few pairs of ears but seemingly left none of them unmoved. At their best, duos are a uniquely formidable type of creative chemistry.

In the music of Sweden's Kuryakin - made up of Petter Gjöres (vocals, guitar, computers) and Johan Norberg (guitar, computers) - one hears that same alchemical magic that occurs when two simpatico minds go in pursuit of a singular result. Theirs is music stripped of surplus, that achieves great sophistication with few embellishments and a razor-sharp focus.

"Myself, I've always liked ambitious pop music that's rather unpredictable but, at the same time, never loses the focus on melodies," says Johan, who met Petter at Uppsala University in 2002 and started making music with him a year later. "Prefab Sprout and the songs of Jimmy Webb are great in that kind of way. I think we both have a great love for major-seventh harmonies, and strings as well. We've thought in terms of orchestras, but I think we're beginning to realize that the music becomes more fun when we have to make the most of the sounds with a computer, using samples and electronic sounds instead."

Petter and Johan, perhaps unsurprisingly, are great admirers of Scritti Politti, Junior Boys, and Saint Etienne - all of them groups who have expanded the stylistic palette of what is, ostensibly, electronic pop. But the pair also love sixties Sunshine Pop (The Free Design, Roger Nichols & the Small Circle of Friends), bossa nova (Marcos Valle, Antonio Carlos Jobim), and nu-soul singer Ne-Yo. What unites all those artists is a commitment to melody, to making more of less, and to composing songs that set up permanent residence in the mind.

Still Here, Kuryakin's debut EP, is remarkably assured and coherent, especially considering how it was made: Petter lives in Stockholm, while Johan is in Uppsala. They email ideas to each other, then get together a few times each month to flesh them out. "I have to work on songs in solitude," Johan admits. "It's better to have some ideas and then ask Petter what he thinks. Then he can add something new to it, or the other way around. But it would be much better if we lived in the same city.

"Still Here contains lots of older songs we haven't been able to release before now... We've joked that we should call it our greatest hits album."

From the sweeping romanticism of "Take My Hand" to the subtle Brazilian swing of "A Parade," there is a stylistic breadth throughout Still Here's seven songs that indeed makes it sound like a compilation that arrived well into Kuryakin's career. That this is only the beginning leaves us to imagine the seemingly limitless places they might go to from here.

Nouveau
Pas d'avis

Les clients ont également acheté

Produit ajouté à la liste de souhaits

Nous utilisons des cookies pour vous garantir la meilleure expérience sur notre site. Si vous continuez à utiliser ce dernier, nous considérerons que vous acceptez l'utilisation des cookies.