Loney dear announces new album ‘A Lantern and a Bell’, shares ‘Trifles’

A central track to Emil’s new album, ‘Trifles’ had a particularly long gestation period in the studio — a previous, mixed version eventually scrapped in favour of a new recording captured in a single day, just before a bike accident put Svanängen temporarily out of action. Speaking about the track, which builds from its austere piano beginnings into a lush embrace of electronics, Emil says:

“I love this song. All these gentle uneven bars barely noticed in a good song. The glock ostinato starting to copy the piano figure, and the disoriented whistle in the interlude. The powerful ending, even if we promised ourselves to not have songs that grew in the end.

“I’m especially fond of the second verse: ‘sleeping like a carcass, waiting on bus stops, down was the new right, the biggest ship ever caught. I lay in your bed, these times you’re not here. I was the crowd, you wore the crown here.’

“The first verse’s ‘concrete shoes’ refers to when someone messes with the wrong people and get sunk in the water in Nybroviken, outside the theatre. We messed around with naming the song Trifles. It’s a dessert. Or something too trivial to mention. Anyhow, do enjoy. This one is special to us.”

Listen to ‘Trifles’

Recorded with producer Emanuel Lundgren in a mythical studio on western Södermalm in Stockholm, A Lantern and A Bell is Loney dear’s second album for Real World, following 2017’s self-titled release.

Speaking about Emil’s new record — on which he has consulted as a sounding board — label founder Peter Gabriel says: “Sad soulful melodies that create space in your head that fill with memories dreams and tenderness. I am very proud that we are working with such a gifted songwriter. When you’re isolating, what better than to be wrapped up in these beautiful imaginative constructions — the work of a master.”

Maritime themes permeate across A Lantern and A Bell — the album arrives bearing artwork depicting the international nautical flag for distress (whilst ‘Trifles’ itself features a torn and ragged flag used to indicate a change of course) and Emil’s voice is frequently bolstered by diffused water sounds at dark low frequencies and the calls of sea birds.

For those who know their Loney dear, the constant references to sea and ships are hardly something new. “All that is an important part of my inner life, maybe a romantic dream of adventure, but also a phobia, a danger I cannot help but be drawn to,” says Emil. “Near where I live, freighters pass by every day and the sounds of their engines get into my head. And further into the music.”

A Lantern and a Bell is available on CD, Vinyl and digitally on 26 March 2021.

Pre-order the album