Norway’s Trees Up North return with their third single release, with “Underwater” dropping December 4th. Trees Up North writes:
“Keeping your breath under water for a long time is an exercise few of us master. The desperate but exciting feeling you get when you realize that the air in the lungs is about to run out, and you have to rise to the surface. Each time surprised at how different these two worlds are experienced. Always above or below the surface. Safe on land, one immediately longs to return to the dark, peaceful depths where, only a moment ago, one struggled to survive.”
UNDERWATER is Trees Up North’s third song taken from his upcoming debut album with expected release in January 2021. His ability to combine the beautiful with the dark comes into its own in this monumental song.
What is the song trying to describe for the listener? Perhaps an emotional balancing act you experience in the intimate meeting with someone you feel a strong connection with. The feeling of being able to live and love and breathe freely. The longing to dive into the dark lonely silence where one fights for one’s own life.
Or is it the opposite?
It has been a hard year. European Phonographic is proud to release this moving song, that somehow makes for an adequate recapitulation for 2020. Top o’ the season to you.
Lusitanian Ghosts return with their latest single ‘For The Wicked’, following the recent release of uplifting ode to life and love ‘All the Sounds’. The international collective is led by singer-songwriter and producer Neil Leyton and Swedish guitarist, singer and multi-instrumentalist Micke Ghost, with a cast of musical associates, including João Sousa, Janne Olsson, Vasco Ribeiro Casais (aka OMIRI) and Abel Beja of Primitive Reason.
This time Lusitanian Ghosts switch gears, moving in a more wistful direction while still making innovative use of their trademark Portuguese chordophone instruments. ‘For The Wicked’ is an ardent political address that speaks to a lost and apathetic society, accompanied by Lusitanian Ghosts’ masterful backdrop of ancient strings: the viola Amarantina, viola Braguesa, viola Campaniça (on loan from O Gajo) and viola Terceira.
It is a melodically vivid and passionate reckoning of those with self-righteous beliefs that sanctimoniously disregard the welfare of humanity, believing only in their own worth. It’s tinged with hostility and resentment, while also providing a strangely celebratory sense of melancholia as the track builds gradually to its anthemic finale.
Speaking of the single’s focal point, Neil Leyton says; “I shouldn’t have to spell it out, but like the Manics’ “Design for Life”, I am not singing the chorus in my own voice but rather I’m taking on the role of those high-and-mighty power-hungry populists, the ruling elites or even religious zealots who believe bad things will never happen to them because they’re closer to god – or in some cases just lawyers, money or power”.
Lilting yet sharp in its lyricism, the track switches seamlessly from a repetitive staccato to a euphoric flood of sound, drawing out the song’s themes and commentary. As Neil sums up, “This one is an open critique against religious or political extremism, populism, or any other kind of anti-humanist behaviour. To the Wicked we say: good riddance!”
‘For The Wicked’ is out on 13th November 2020 via European Phonographic: lnk.to/FortheWicked
For all media enquiries contact Anastasia Connor (UK) – anastasia@noiseunit.co Jeroen Siebens (European radio) – jeroen@radioplugging.eu
TREES UP NORTH releases his new single “Ladder” August 28th via European Phonographic.
TREES UP NORTH is the “band” pseudonym of Norwegian singer-songwriter Hans Stop. Stop was born and raised on an old farm in the middle of Norway where he now resides.
Through his strongly personal expression, TREES UP NORTH establishes an organic and pulsating space for the listener where text and music communicate a human need for reflection and maturity. Where understanding the world requires you to take a certain distance from it.
From his Nordic exile TREES UP NORTH observes the public noise from the outside world. Surrounded by an increasingly self-centered culture of mass consumption and alienation, he creates music that goes beyond this tyranny of shallow intimacy. A self-imposed solitude has become his creative weapon, creating music that leaves it up to the listener to decide for themselves whether they want to enter his musical universe on their own terms.
“A ladder has two different directions. The upward direction often represents progress and coveted goals a person wants to achieve. The other represents to a greater extent the unknown and foreign, as if one climbs into a darkness that hides the greatest secrets and the deepest thoughts. That someone wants to share this with you can be a blessing or a curse.”
In the process of bringing his music to life, the studio recordings are made together with some of his best friends and fellow musicians during a few winter nights in an unhurried, organic fashion. Here they all manage to capture an atmosphere of collective playing and personal intensity that feels no rush towards immediate release – music for music’s sake that will eventually lead the way to a TREES UP NORTH debut album.
European Phonographic continues its missions in bringing you special music from different corners of Europe, and this Friday 26th of June is a great example: AKA Neomi from Ljubljana, Slovenia, release a brand new lockdown single, “The View”, following their latest album Beautiful Disasters. Meanwhile, from one of the opposite ends of the compass comes the very first offering from Norwegian band Trees Up North with “For the Greater Good”.
Stay safe, stay health, and stay together.
TREES UP NORTH: “For the Greater Good”
Out of the sheer will for communicating that is born from solitude and displacement comes Trees Up North, Norwegian musical project led by Hans Stop. Nordic melancholic vibes meets the warmth and organic atmospheres of American and British alt-indie songwriters. “For The Greater Good” is the musical equivalent of an Astronaut floating on Earth, experiencing and (embracing?) the loneliness and alienation modern society has brought upon mankind. It’s like we’ve lost the sense of life, and the message seems to be: It all happens “for the greater good”!
AKA Neomi: “The View”
AKA Neomi make electronic indie music you can think to: music with a message. The View is a new single recorded during the quarantine. It’s a song about moving on and leaving the past behind. “Bad choices make us feel bad about ourselves, but sometimes we need to gain a new perspective in life. We might regret it at some point, but we can at least enjoy the view for a while.” explains Sasa Vipotnik. The View follows the band’s latest album, Beautiful Disasters, released in January 2020.
Slovenian Psyche-Pop Indie Darlings Unveil New Album for the New Decade
Known in their home country of Slovenia simply as Neomi, AKA Neomi kick-off 2020 with the release of their brand new album after a long hiatus. Beautiful Disasters is a creation of songwriter Saša Vipotnik and producer and arranger Mario Babojelić. They both say they would categorize the album as their brand of psychedelic pop. Despite catchy melodies, Saša’s dreamy vocals and Mario’s unique guitar playing, the soundscapes occasionally and gradually disintegrate into almost unrecognizable noise. The whole album takes the listener on a journey into polarizing soundscapes of beauty and ugliness, through loyalty and debauchery, sometimes torn between love and ambivalence, emotional coldness. In her lyrics Saša speaks both to her loved ones as well as people in general; and like the ancient Greek poet Sappho, often addresses her muse. The album cover depicts how we currently live: a dream-like state of nonsense, on the edge of a potential catastrophe, however within the current mood of this new decade AKA Neomi still wish for people not to fall into downheartedness – let hope prevail! One way or the other, life flies by with an indecent haste.
AKA Neomi live at Kino Siska, Ljubljana, release party for “Beautiful Disasters” by Urska Boljkovac.
Old News…
This Friday November 8th marks the release of AKA Neomi’s very first single “Family”!
“Very first single”, you say? Indeed… that is not quite true! But fulfilling European Phonograhic’s mission, it is in fact the first international single for Slovenia’s indie icons Neomi.
Outside their own domestic market of Slovenia, Neomi will take on the new artist name AKA Neomi so as to not be confused with other non-Slovenian artists by the same name.
AKA Neomi’s first single, “Family”, is out November 8th via European Phonographic’s digital distribution partner, Level:UP:
Neomi proudly presents a new single called Family and a supporting music video, now available in retro-mono sound on YouTube. The stereo version will be on Apple Music and other Premium channels to coincide with the album release, coming in early 2020. Producer Mario Babojelić is again excelling at his audio perfectionism, attention to detail and brilliant guitar skills.
About “Family” (the single): Before singing this song at their concert at Siti Theatre, in their home town of Ljubljana, in May 2019, vocalist and songwriter Saša Vipotnik said something in Slovenian that is a fair description of this song: »a normal family, an abnormal family, a kind family, a mean family. I want to form a family someday and my family will be a kind one. Let’s start opposing the expression »normal family«, after all it’s all for our children’s sake!« She was playing with the words of Slovenia’s most conservative politicians.
Neomi Biography:
Neomi features electronic indie pop, through trip-hop rhythms, to more downtempo acoustic feel sonic landscapes, with lyrical texts surrounding the familiar soothing vocals coming from Slovenian singer-author Saša Vipotnik; in the company of producer-engineer Mario Babojelić. Supporting them are some very talented musicians – Dejan Slak (bass guitar, bass synth), Marko Grubar (drums), Erik Marenče (keyboard, piano, rhodes). Neomi’s sounds are not clear-cut, but always bold – complemented with Babojelić’s precise guitar skills, reverbs and delays, leading to a unique and almost other-worldly sound.
Formed in 2012 in Ljubljana, it has already been a while since Neomi’s first album came out. In the meantime, a few people went out, some new people came in and the front lady came out… Now they’re back. Sharper, louder and recording their second album, which will be released in January 2020 on the new European Phonographic label. They have been active supporters of the LGBTQ+ community and its rights from their very beginning. They used to have an acoustic jazzy feel, but are now evolving into a bolder genre.
