December – mp3 of the month

Salvo Magazine appoints December their mp3 of the month in their upcoming issue. Read it first here!

MP3 of the Month
Sofia Talvik – December

It’s not very often I come across Folk music that’s to my taste. Maybe it’s just a genre that doesn’t really do that much for me, I don’t know. Now, before all Folk artists out there get all defensive and start writing in complaining that I’m dissing them as a collective, please, save your venting, you couldn’t be further from the truth.

You see, although I’m not the biggest lover of Folk music in general, when it’s done properly, like pretty much any genre (especially Classical but that’s a totally different story), it can be stunning.

Look at artists like Gemma Hayes, Kathryn Williams, Nick Drake, Tom McRae or Cara Dillon, with the latter especially being truly sublime. Folk absolutely is a genre that’s both under appreciated whilst also being a backbone to music as a whole and one we must all embrace ‘for the greater good’.

That’s what leads me onto Sofia. We decided to choose December as our MP3 of the month above all other tracks off her most recent long playing effort Street of Dreams as it would be too easy to choose the single It’s Just Love based on the facts that 1 – it’s a single already and 2 – it’s a duet with one of my personal heroes, Bernard Butler, now, that would bias the vote ten fold.
No, what sets December apart from the bunch is that it’s just so much more delicate than the others.

With a vocal range tinged by echoes of Dolores Mary O'Riordan Burton from the Cranberries blended with a light heartedness that in some ways isn’t too distant from Joni Mitchell in her heyday all those years ago, December has managed to remain on constant replay for a good while now and will continue to do so until another track off the album takes our fancy.
Featuring an accent that does at times sound Irish it’s almost unnoticeable that she is in fact from Sweden. Don’t worry. We’ll keep the Abba references to a minimum.

Sofia has obviously been working as a solo artist for long enough now to realise where she wants to get, it’s abundantly clear that she’s working with people who are on her wavelength and are helping her do that

If there was ever a time for artists like Sofia to be in the forefront it’s got to be now, we’ve got others Acoustic Soloists like James Morrison and Blunt pushing acoustic based song writing into the mainstream and whilst we really shouldn’t pin all of our hopes on artists like these, god help us if we did, it is great to see that every now and then artists like Sofia do get the spotlight shone in their direction. 2007 should be the year that spotlight gets turned to face her and we wish her all the best when it does.

I am also green with envy that she’s worked with a hero, but I’ll get over that so don’t worry too much..

www.myspace.com/sofiatalvik

Duncan Buchanan

Coming up on the tv and radio

I’m being interviewed tonight on the news at 8.30pm (kl 20.30) on Swedish TV8.  For everyone who wants to know what it’s like to run your own label this might be a treat.
Update: Check out the interview HERE. (the interview is 12:10 minutes into the show)
Tv8 Intervju

… or you can listen to Swedish Radio P2 Felicia Show on Sunday at noon, when they’re airing an interview recorded in London after my gigs there.

I thought the reviews had stoped coming but apparantley not… so thank you ICA kuriren and Jönköpings Posten for giving me solid 4:s yay! 🙂

An air of mystery…

… haunts Swedish Daily News (Dagens Nyheter's) reviewer PO Tidholm when he listens to "Street of Dreams".

Män med gitarr brukade vara en tröttsamt förutsägbar företeelse. I någon mån alltid likadana. Sedan några år har de unga kvinnorna med gitarr blivit fler och bildat en kritisk massa. Likheterna blir allt mer tydliga, den främsta finns att finna i språket.

För medan männen ofta valde en opersonlig svenska väljer kvinnorna engelskan, och de har – som till exempel Ternheim och Talvik – gjort den till sin, försvenskat den kan man säga. Sofia Talvik släpper nu sitt andra album, på eget bolag, i egen produktion. Det är en lågmäld popskiva med försiktigt melodiösa sånger, lite stråkar, piano och gitarrplock.

Det mesta känns trevligt ordinärt, utom språket, tonläget och den svenska accenten. Den skapar en omisskännlig stämning, ett lätt mystiskt uttryck. Så Talvik blir kvar i huvudet trots allt, med sin brytning och ljusa svenska röst.

Po Tidholm

Indie Chic Magazine goes nuts…

…about the new album. Indie Chic Magazine reviews "Street of Dreams"

Sofia Talvik – Street of Dreams

Word on the music street is that soultress Sofia Talvik's new cd "Street Of Dreams" is a remarkable hit,
Indie Chic went out to prove such a thing.
With amazing vocals and beautiful melodies, this cd is "To Die For" in music lovers eyes!  A struggling female artist on the verge of stardom? Indie chic thinks so, the music hit our ears and we had to write a review on such a tasteful sounds and wonderful lyrics. "Its Just Love" is an astonishing song flows with melody and great vocals.
This wonderful swedish artists is amazing, if you like The Sounds or if you like Lauren Hoffman, Sofia Talvik is definently one to remember and check out.
More songs on the record that was remarkable in our eyes… "December" and "Street Of Dreams", both songs can be heard on her MySpace –  www.myspace.com/sofiatalvik

The album was released January 30th. Street of Dreams is her second album, her debut "Blue Moon" is available on iTunes Music store and was released last year with raving reviews from the media.

Fabulous Myspace

I suppose many of you that read this blog has found it through myspace.

I know everybody's already been raving about myspace for ages but I have to cheer a bit more. This time it's because of a wonderful pianist I found through myspace and immediately tied to the new album.

I actually used to play the piano myself. I played classic paino for about 10 years, but then I moved out of my parents place and realised that a guitar is so much lighter than a piano. I still play when I'm at their house and I sometimes dream of having my own piano, but for now the guitar will have to do, and for playing on the album, well I better leave that to someone more talanted than me.

So when I stumbled over Jozsef Nemeth's myspace site I couldn't have been more lucky. Funnily enough Jozsef is Swedish, like me, even though he lives in the US. And with you eight million or so Americans on myspace, we Swedes have to fight for our own, right? 😉 Anyway, we exchanged a couple of emails and later that week a mp3 found its way to my inbox. I didn't dare to hope too much as you never know with people on the internet (just a while ago one person offered to mix my album in Garageband… so there sure are all kinds). But the piano Jozsef had composed for my song was wonderful, daring, careful and beautiful.

I'll post some samples later on, so until then you'll have to make do with this pic of Jozsef. And visit his myspace site for some of his own samples.