2009

December 31, 2009

ARTIST OF THE MONTH: HANNAH MODIGH

PHOTOGRAPHER OF THE YEAR: HANNAH MODIGH

Early this spring, Vice Magazine and Fargfabriken, a contemporary art gallery in Stockholm, presented one of Sweden’s most talented documentary photographers, Hannah Modigh.
28-year-old Hannah Modigh, born in India now living in Stockholm is a brave soul who photographed sex workers in Denmark, teen-age drug addicts and overall, poverty and misery. Fargfabriken featured her latest photo project Hillbilly Heroin Honey.
Modigh lived and partied with poverty-stricken kids around the Appalachian mountains in Virginia for two months, which resulted in impressive exhibit by this award winning young talent who posses a curious and courageous soul and a necessity to capture the lost souls in front of her lens.
http://www.hannahmodigh.se/
By LK

This song is like biking with a broken heart when we’ve been dreaming for too long. Or the warming rays of the April sunrise over a Stockholm dressed in blue and gold. It is like hearing the calm breaths of someone sleeping next to you; unable to believe it is true. Like love, it is seductive, uncertain and a light in the darkness. Sometimes we all loose track of our hearts, but to capture it all in a song, is only possible because pop is love.
Change Of Heart is available on El Perro Del Mar’s latest album Love is Not Pop, co-produced by Rasmus Hägg, from Sweden’s Balearic dance duo number one; The Studio.
http://www.elperrodelmar.com/
By EA

The video of “Into The Clouds” is a juxtaposition of fantasy and reality, a journey into reminiscences of your wildest dreams. The Technicolor aesthetics, the scenic surroundings, the pink clouds and the dreamy electro beat lifts you up and invite you to a fantasy world with no limits. It has magic written all over it. The video is the second of The Sounds of Arrows, a newcomer on the Swedish dance scene. It leaves you filled with childish excitement and bubbly joy; a marvelous adaptation of how life could look if you could escape reality and fly up into the clouds.
C’mon, get carried away and watch the world get a little bit brighter here.
http://www.thesoundofarrows.com/
By LK

The founders of Our Legacy, Jockum Hallin and Cristopher Nying were born in the early 1980s; however, they reach into the past to breathe life into tried and true garments, adding a contemporary flair. Inspired by the fictional character Sean de Germand — an amalgamation of real and imagined personalities and aesthetics (and aided by collaborator Richardos Rosen). The label crafts jackets, over coats, trousers, shirts and footwear which reflect the style of a young man who is not bound borders set by the fashion industry. Our Legacy values craftsmanship and quality.
Their use of fine fabrics from Italy, Japan, England and Portugal signals their commitment to providing their customers with the best.
What is really refreshing about the design team is the respect they have for time in relation to garments. The pieces they construct are meant to have a life beyond the season in which they are designed, and to feel as if they’ve been handed down for generations. Each piece of fabric used has its own narrative.
Our Legacy can be summed up in one word: timeless.
http://ourlegacy.se/
By KG

With their hazy brand of new wave-ish pop, Swedish outfit the Mary Onettes have actually been in together for upwards of nine years.
Originally formed in Jönköping, Sweden, Philip Ekström (vocals, guitar), Henrik Ekström (bass), Petter Agurén (guitar), and Simon Fransson (drums) released their first self-titled album in 2007 on Labrador Records. They later released a follow up LP entitled Islands in November of 2009. In addition to its musical prowess, Islands is a fine example of The Mary Onettes’ hard work and fervent determination. In a stroke of bad luck, the record’s original recordings were allegedly stolen out of the back of Ekstrom’s car (they were saved on a hard drive. Go figure). As a result, the band was forced to re-record the entire album, resulting in a heart-wrenching, powerful 80′s revival, expertly recalling former Gothic new wavers Echo and the Bunnymen.
http://www.themaryonettes.net/
By RB

We admire those who pursue their dreams and realize their ideas. People who make it happen. Go-getter Tony Cederteg is one of those people. With an unconditional devotion to art, photography, music and the written word, he follows l’air du temps and refuses to settle for a genre.
With the world as a pop cultural oyster, why should he?
For the past decade Tony has been a publisher, a TV host, an art curator, a party planner, a model, a drummer, DJ, a zone-maker. –The list just goes on. He once said that his reason for doing all kinds of different things is to find out what he does best. Simple as that.
This past year Cederteg co-organized a Greenroom Session bash in Stockholm, guest-blogged over at Rodeo magazine, organized the night club series Fukt , managed the electro-techno label F and curated the four-part photo exhibition Sleep the Way You Lay it Down at bar Tranan. The exhibition relates to publishing house Libraryman Co., Ltd. that he runs.
We look forward to following him on his never-ending ambitious adventures during 2010. And well, what else can we say…
Keep spreading the entrepreneurial energy Tony!
http://www.libraryman.se/
By ETS

The Swedish creativity is clearly demonstrated by the brains behind T-post, a subscription service that deliver a t-shirt magazine to subscribers once every six weeks. The basic idea is to chose an offbeat news story each month, print it on the inside of a plain t-shirt and send the story off to a new, talented designer who then personally expresses their reaction to the news piece by illustrating their interpretation on the front of the shirt. The subversive design and idea behind it makes the best conversation topic for those who wears the t-shirt.
” It’s a communication experiment that typically begins with a compliment like Nice t-shirt! and continues with the wearer explaining the interesting news story behind the design.” explains the founders of T-post.
http://t-post.se/
By LK

Published by: The Swede Beat