Friendly Noise is a record label from Stockholm, Sweden, run by Stefan Zachrisson, Mattias Holmberg, Katja Ekman, Tomas Bodén, Petter Herbertsson, Hugo Lavett, Åsa Samuelsson, Per Johansson, Sebastian Rozenberg and Niklas Karlsson. Founded in 2002 by Zachrisson and Holmberg. Album releases by Differnet, Testbild!, Most Valuable Players, The Dreamers, Action Biker, and the “Friendly People Making Noise”, “Are You Scared To Get Happy?” and “Splendid Isolation” compilations.
Starting today we will publish a weekly list of things we like at the moment.
WEEK 15, 2009:
High Places (concert in Stockholm, 090327)
Juli Zeh, “Fritt fall” (book)
Erik Kjellberg, “Jan Johansson - tiden och musiken” (book + cd)
Differnet, “Hands (for Rosemary Brown”) (new, not yet released song)
Antonin Guyon Gevrey-Chambertin La Justice 2005 (wine)
Sudden Sway “O Copper Eskimo” (song)
Patience Worth “Wentworth” (mp3)
Shanghai (city)
Lagar de Cervera (Albariño) (wine)
Norma Winstone (singer)
Dexys Midninght Runners “Reminisce (part one)” (song)
Amanaz “Africa” (album)
Viktor Sjöberg “Crucial Words: Conditions for Contemporary Jazz” (text)
Cecily Brown (Gagosian / Rizzoli) (text)
“Private view with Adrian Searle” (art podcasts)
Motion “Walk On By” (song)
Haunted Staircase “Something For The Children (A New Kind Of Lullaby)” (song)
The release party was earlier this week, and the official release date - nowadays, without any kind of official distribution, that’s just a date to include in the press release so it all will look proper and 4 real for reviewers - is Wednesday 11 March, and listed below are the lovely persons who pre-ordered Testbild!’s “Aquatint”. There’s a little delay in sending the record to the pre-orderers since the extra presents that we have promised are still in production… But we hope to send it all away in the beginning of next week!
Thank you all, from Friendly Noise! Patronage pop is here to stay:
Johannes Nilsson, Klas Senatus Sjögren, Björn Hallström, Jonas Hellström, Patrik Lindgren, Emmanuel Nyberg, Jürgen Heil, Björn Berglund, Alberto Guerrero Gómez, Mathieu Bournazel, Gustav Josefsson, Henrik Möller, Robert Karlsson, Magnus Johnsson, Denis Mace, Arnd Zeigler, Edvin Lindström, Joakim Norling, Robert Elfving,
Ed Mazzucco, Rebecca Waters Boldsen Lund, Stefan Wesley, Jennifer Lee, Björn Ekström, Peter Quick, Michael Vogt, Ulf Österström, Jonas Juuso, Erik Ejewall,, David Redmalm, Bart Van Laecke, Elias Hillström, Michael Krenz, Nils Hansson, Robert Jakobsson, Patric Kiraly, Fredrik Jönsson, Zeljko Cirikovacki, Johan Fredriksson, Martin Hwasser, John Houghtaling, Daisuke Shigemoto, Andreas Gredegård,
Ivar Lavett, Christophe Patris, David Schrittesser, Huw Rees, Erik Bråvander, Johan Bielecki, Susanna Johansson, Mattias Jonsson, Marcus Wall, Stine Mari Rong, Jeffrey Sommer, Per Engström, Oriol Rife, Per Hägglund, Tor Billgren, Mikael Thorsén, Jonas Stenberg, Lars Nilsson, Daniel Bengmark, Kim Grönqvist, Mitchell Mounteer, Martin Jonsjö, Oscar Täckström, Noah Wilson.
(Note: One (1) person who pre-ordered didn’t want to have his name published. We respect that completely.)
* * *
The film at the top is by Pontus Lundkvist, including music from “Aquatint”, and is included in the CD.
* Norwegian radio show Spissfindie kindly dedicated 30 minutes to Friendly Noise the other week, including an interview and music from all the Friendly Noise bands, here’s a link to listen to it (in Swedish/Norwegian).
* Action Biker is going away on a short tour, the dates:
27 January, Cosy den, Landet, Stockholm
30 January, Pop Kombinat, NBI Club, Berlin
31 January, Hit The North, Thalia Theater, Hamburg
28 February, London Pop Fest, Macbeth, London
In 2009 Friendly Noise will release one new artefact every three months. Every release can differ from the previous one; it all depends on what we and our bands/artists want to do. One release can be a CD, another a vinyl, and then a printed object or something else.
The artefacts will be released as limited editions. This will, when it’s records, be combined with good digital distribution, which means unlimited availability for anyone who wants the music.
The artefacts will be manufactured in editions of 300 copies. The price to buy them will, considering the limited editions, still be relatively inexpensive since we no longer will have middle man distributors, and also because we don’t do this for profit.
It’s not until we receive 100 pre-orders that we will send the record to the manufacturing place. If not 100 people are interested in the artefact then we might, if it’s music, release it as mp3:s instead. Or not at all.
Those who pre-order an artefact will be guaranteed a copy of it, and you will be the first one who gets it. We will also always include an exclusive present, a poster or something similar in the package.
All names of those who pre-order will be published on the Friendly Noise website as a gesture of our appreciation of your support. (For those who prefer to be anonymous, just let us know and we’ll keep it that way.)
The first artefact to be released under these guidelines is “Aquatint”, the new, fifth album by Testbild! Following last year’s “Une teinte intense”, an album light as a mirage, that bridges pop, jazz and exotica in the sun-bleached deserts of North Africa, “Aquatint” is, instead, an outburst of underwater inspiration.
On December 6 we had a small Friendly Noise Christmas party at the art gallery Detroit in Stockholm. A very nice day with glögg, gingerbread biscuits, presents, live music by Luva, Ring Snuten and Komponisten, premiere screenings of the new Testbild! video by Pontus Lundkvist (which will be included on the “Aquatint”, the forthcoming Testbild! album), and Sebastian Rozenberg’s new videos for Parker Lewis and Luva.
We also gave away 50 copies of a 12 page fanzine in A4 format where we, amongst other things, try to explain our release ideas for 2009 . Here’s a pdf of it for those of you you weren’t there (it’s in Swedish…), and here’s about 30 photos from the party.
Two tracks from the forthcoming album by Testbild! entitled Aquatint. Following last year’s Une teinte intense, an album light as a mirage, that bridges pop, jazz and exotica in the sun-bleached deserts of North Africa, Aquatint is, instead, an outburst of underwater inspiration.
“My Brother the Submariner” is originally a song by The Hepburns that finds its message explored further by Testbild!. “Garnet Brand Land” is set somewhere over the waves yet under the stars. Possibly near the coast of Mexico, by the sound of it.
Swedish magazine Digfi said: “Who could possibly resist music as exquisite as this?
FRIENDLY NOISE
Torsdag 6/11, kl. 20-01
40 kr., 18 år
Sugar Bar, Kammakargatan 9, Stockholm
Dags för novembergången av Friendly Noises klubb, då vi har bjudit in:
Live: SARTO. Gammal Friendly Noise-favorit. Senaste gången vi såg honom live var på Friendly Noise/FLM-tillställningen på Allmänna galleriet i mars. Det är ju jättelänge sedan. Sedan dess skivaktuell med bästa Förmögenhet-versionen på “Har du hört den förut?”-samlingen.
Gäst-dj: JOHAN NEIJ. Från bloggen Jo/No’s Audio Delights, vars inriktning är “an eclectic smorgasboard of sounds from all over the world”. Kolla till exempel upp hans mix “Pop as in Pop! J as in jazz!”
The first artefact to be released under these guidelines is “Aquatint”, the new, fifth album by Testbild! Following last year’s “Une teinte intense”, an album light as a mirage, that bridges pop, jazz and exotica in the sun-bleached deserts of North Africa, “Aquatint” is, instead, an outburst of underwater inspiration.