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Loney dear, the vehicle by which songwriter and musician Emil Svanängen delivers his mini-symphonies of off-kilter pop music to the world, announces the release of his first-ever live album entitled Atlantis, released digitally on Real World Records on 11 November, 2022, and today has shared the first track Violent (Atlantis).
Recorded at one of Stockholm’s last great studios from a golden-era of record making, Atlantis Studios inspired not only the name of the album, but provides the backdrop for what is unquestionably a live album, but one with a difference. The performance was recorded in April 2021 with global events disrupting both audience and band members alike, “We were only allowed to have eight people in the audience,” remembers Svanängen, “which happened that morning. The day before we could have had 50. It was a big crisis and I was super stressed about it, but it was a classic ‘show must go on’ situation.”
Despite the practical obstacles, what Atlantis captures is a rather remarkable testimony to the power of Svanängen’s song-writing and the skill of the band members who — with hardly a rehearsal — add depth and dimension to the compositions. The song choices are largely culled from Loney dear’s last two studio records, A Lantern and a Bell and Loney dear, but older songs such as Largo and Maria Is That You? (from Hall Music) and Violent (from Dear John) also feature, given renewed energy by the ensemble of Per Texas Johansson (clarinet), Mattias Ståhl (vibraphone), Johan Lindström (pedal steel), Johan Graden (piano), Josef Kallerdahl (bass) and Konrad Agnas (drums).
I have always enjoyed the fact that a song is any version of that song. The fact that it doesn't have to be the definitive version makes it more enjoyable. In fact, it’s a bit of a relief because you can make your best album every night, combining things from all your albums and in the making of Atlantis one of the main ideas was just to collect good songs from the past that haven’t really been able to shine. Emil Svanängen
1. There Are Several Alberts Here (Atlantis)
2. Violent (Atlantis)
3. Hulls (Atlantis) feat. Helen Sjöholm
4. Last Night (Atlantis)
5. Habibi (Atlantis)
6. Maria Is That You? (Atlantis)
7. Oppenheimer (Atlantis)
8. Darling (Atlantis)
9. Interval Repeat War (Atlantis)
Recorded at Atlantis Studios, Stockholm
Produced by Emil Svanängen and Emanuel Lundgren
Atlantis will be released digitally on 11 November 2022. A new track from the album will be released on streaming services each week until the album release date.
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