Day 186. Not much news today, but I have been quite productive on the blog site writing many interviews and asking more bands to participate. This week for sure we have posts Monday through Friday.
Nos Etés Trop Courts: some time ago I shared the “Sunshine Demo EP” by this early 90s shoegaze band from Nantes. Today I want to tell you that the first demo, “Sunset Demo”, is up on Bandcamp. 3 great songs recorded by Gérôme Guibert and Jimmy Arfosea in 1991. On top if it all I promise an interview with the band members later this week!
Foliage: a new album by the San Bernardino project is coming out on October 2nd digitally and November 11 on tape. This self-titled album will be released by Z Tapes and at the moment we can preview one of the tracks, “Better Man”. The album will have 12 songs.
The Luxembourg Signal: the Californian band is going to be back with a new album on Shelflife Records on October 23rd and that’s great news! The Long Now” will be released on vinyl and CD and will have 10 songs! Again we can only preview one song, “2.22”, which is terrific! Can’t wait for it.
The Hepburns: and finally we can listen to the new album “Electric Lliedi Land” on Bandcamp! 18 songs that are truly wonderful. One that no one could miss this year. The album is being released on CD and comes with a 16 page booklet (I always like big booklets with info and lyrics) and is out already!
Airiel: lastly in this Monday review, we find a new track from the classic Chicago shoegaze band. It is called “Bloom” and it sounds beautiful, gorgeous. Does this new track mean that the band will be releasing a new record soon? It seems so. The band says they are working on an EP top be released later this year!
—————————————————————–
“Paris Rain in July”. That is the song that made me think that I thought would give me a check mark for July, in this silly challenge I am taking on my own. Writing about bands that had written about the months, now I am in July, and of course the next would be August.
So yeah, Chasing Dorotea. From Sweden. They released just one record, an album, back in 2002. It came out on the pre-Labrador Records label Summersound Recordings (SUMMER 007). It was a co-release with Stereo Test Kit Records (STK CD002).
11 songs came on this CD digipak, “The Anchor Song”, “Crackin Up”, “Dreamer”, “Tuva Song”, “In April”, “All I Want”, “A Long Time Ago”, “Paris Rain in July”, “Early Morning Mist”, “Memory” and “Dark Angel”. The producers for the album were Christopher Sander and Mattias Berqvist. Both of them were part of the band of course, Berqvist was the drummer as well as playing tambourine, vocals and handclaps. Sander on the other hand wrote most of the band’s songs and sand as well as played melodica. The other band members was Hugo Waara on bass.
Other people that participated on the record were Tobias Einestad, Sariana Cortes, Andreas Jeppson, Erik Westerberg, Paulo Vidal and César Vidal who wrote the song “Crackin Up”.
The Labrador website has a small little writeup from Christopher Sander. He says: “Me, Hugo and Mattias have been playing music together since we were 11 years old. I have been writing songs for as long. We grew up in a suburb of Stockholm. Have had our share of parties and travels. I write lyrics about girls I like a lot, dreams, childhood and other things I think are important.
Decided in 1998 to make music that sounded like red house painters. Before that I was mostly in to hard rock. All the musicians are from the same music school. I met my sister Tuva on a parkbench in Prague. Recorded a demo in 1999 and nothing happened.
In the beginning of 2001 I wrote twelve songs in a week, recorded them the following week and signed a contract with Summersound the third week. 25 new songs in my pocket, much better, I think, a couple of duets with a girl called Maria.
We rehearse in a suburb called the mid-summer garland together with three of the greatest bands in the world; Caesar’s Palace, The Dandelions and Mano and the Tears.”
I feel this has been translated from Swedish or something. Badly translated. The suburb they mention might be Midsommarkransen in Stockholm. I don’t understand either when he says he met his sister Tuva in a Prague.
I do know that the Caesar’s Palace band he mentions is the band were César Vidal who wrote the song “Crackin Up”. Was this song from one of his previous bands? He had been in Ceasars and Safari on Pluto as well.
Speaking of people who appeared on the record we know that Andreas Jeppson was in [ingenting]. Tobias Einestad had played trumpet in many recordings for the likes of Acid House Kings, Airliner, or Club 8, so he was well connected with the Labrador people. Don’t know if he had been in any bands.
And of course the [ingenting] connection goes further. Mattias Bergqvist and Christopher Sander would be part of this band after the demise of Chasing Dorotea. They would continue releasing with Labrador too. After that we know that Berqvist would be part of First Aid Kit and Little Children. Sander on the other hand would release a few solo records. Hugo Waara would play in records by Belle.
Then on Last.fm there is another small bio where it says that the label people found about Chasing Dorotea in a visit to a mall: “While buying magazines in a mall we noticed some truly wonderful music coming from the speakers. Gentle little songs with sensitive whispery vocals. We asked the boy behind the counter what it was. That boy was songwriter Christopher Sander and the wonderful music was by his very own; Chasing Dorotea.” Interesting!
Okay, so one album. But also two appearances on compilations. The first was on “The Sound of Young Sweden – Volume 3” released by Labrador (LAB034) in 2002. The band would contribute two songs to it, “Dreamer” and “Compassion”. Then in 2005 they would have “The Anchor Song” on the compilation “Records Make Great Pets Vo. 1/Sweden” released by Stereo Test Kit Records in the UK.
I continue looking for any information about the band. I find that the band played a mini-festival for Labrador on May 9, 2003 at Bommens Salonger. Then I think I find who is the Tuva mentioned in the Labrador bio. So the song “The Anchor Song” which is sung by Sander and a girl, well that girl was Tuva Novotny. Novotny a well known actress who has appeared on Hollywood movies like “Eat, Pray, Love”, “Annhilation” or Blind Spot”, among others.
Not much more about them on the web, but quite some interesting stories we’ve found, right? I am sure the band must have lots of anecdotes. And I am also wondering, when did they stop the band and become [ingenting]? Were they tired of singing in English, perhaps? And the classic one, are there more songs recorded by the band?
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
Listen
Chasing Dorotea – All I Want
