Day 188.
Dan Dan Dero: our friends from Lima have just released a new song called “Como Rei Ayanami”. I believe they are writing about Rei from the Japanese series Evangelion, right? If it was a real person I am sure this character would be proud. It is a very nice song!
Star Party: hailing from the state of Washington in the US we find this 4 song demo that is tagged as c86. The sound is a bit noisier and murkier but it is clear they have been listening to a lot to the Shop Assistants!
Swansea Sound: Hue from the Pooh Sticks, Amelia from Heavenly, together. That is the Swansea Sound who have recorded at 2 song single!! The songs are “Corporate Indie Band” and “Angry Girl” and we can preview the first song on Bandcamp. The release is also available on cassette on Lavender Sweep. Very cool! Hopefully there will be more songs in the near future.
Fine.: I really liked the previous song by this band from Boston, UK. So when I noticed they had a brand new one I was very excited! And yes! “One Year On” is great! What is even better is that they have announced an album to be released later this year. Let’s keep an eye on that!
Spool: 4 girls from Japan and a new digital single called “スーサイド・ガール”. I know very little about this band but they seem to like shoegaze music and you can tell by this song. Nice sounds.
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“The Last Days of August” was the name of the sole album Kristian Rosengren, under his Airliner moniker, released. It included a song of the same name. So that ticks the month of August in my challenge. But that wasn’t all he released. And of course, Kristian, was part of another amazing band, Aerospace. So yeah, there’s a lot to talk about here.
His first ever Airliner release was actually a split 7″. And yes, the other band on the 7″, appearing on the B side was Aerospace. Okay, yeah, I promise to do a post for Aerospace in the future. That makes sense. But let’s stick to Airliner. This split 7″ was released by Labrador Records (LAB009) in the year of 1999. The split 7″ had a title, “Summer Wedding”, though not sure why that name. Airliner contributed two songs on the A side, “Before You Went Away” and “Trying to Be Clever”.
Then we don’t hear from him for a few years.In 2002 the band contributed the song “Everything That’s You” to the compilation “Try A Little Happiness” that came along the “Try Happiness” fanzine. This compilation should be legendary in my books. So many good bands on it.
In 2003 Zenith Recordings and Smudgey Records (ZEN004, Smudge-001) released another split 7″ called “Play Imprints of Emotions EP”. Again Airliner would contribute two songs to the A side, “Always Up to You” and “Happiness (Version)”. The B side was for the band Ant (who was also a one-man unit, Antony Harding from the UK).
It is also interesting that this 7″ would be re-released the year after, in 2004, by Fortune & Glory (FOR V7 113) in the UK. The artwork looks about the same. We know that Kristian recorded at home both songs and the street sounds that are included in the song “Happiness (version)” are from the city of New York. The photo that appears of Kristian on the back cover was taken at a photo booth in the Hornstull underground station in Stockholm. Another interesting fact is that this re-release actually used the same sleeves and probably the same records as the Swedish one. It just has a sticker on the back with the Fortune & Glory info. The other labels info appear as well. Also our friend from Fraction Discs, Jörgen Svensson is thanked in the sleeve.
This same year the band also released their album, “The Last Days of August” on Labrador (LAB030) in Sweden and on Art Union Records (ARTD-5512) in Japan. Funny enough it seems both releases have the same tracklist, 10 songs. Funny as Japanese releases usually have bonus tracks.
The 10 songs were “Trying to Be Clever”, “Everything That’s You”, “One Final Call”, “Nostalgia”, “Always Never”, “Defenses Down”, “Time and Space”, “Always the Last to Know”, “Happiness” and “The Last Days of August”. All songs were recorded by Johan Angergård at Summersound Studios and mastered at the Cutting Room by Thomas Eberger. The sleeve was designed by Lukas Möllersten.
On this record Kristian god some help from friends. Son Tobias Einestad played trumpet, Julia Lannerheim (Acid House Kings) and Karolina Komstedt (Club 8, Poprace) did backing vocals and Johan Angergård (Labrador head honcho, plus Acid House Kings, Club 8, The Legends, etc) produced the record.
2004 would see their song “Everything That’s You” on the compilation “Labrador Kingsize Vol#2” released by Labrador (LAB052). Then again a bit of silence.
2007 will be the last year we hear from Airliner. The song “Always Never” would appear on the compilation “David Design From Sweden With Love” on Labrador (LAB031). This compilation was compiled by Swiss DJ Olivier Rohrbach and included all sorts of Swedish contemporary music. It was a compilation put together by David Design who ran concept stores in Malmö, Stockholm and Tokyo.
“Before You Went Away” and “Trying to be Clever” would appear on the boxset “A Complete History of Popular Music” which was released by Labrador as it’s 100th release (LAB100) in 2007.
Magnum Music, a label from Taiwan, would put together “A Place in My Heart”, a sampler of Labrador artists. Airliner would contribute “Everything That’s You” in this 2007 release. And that same year, not too far away, the compilation “Olle Eksell Meets Labrador” released in Japan by Rambling Records (RBCS-2241) would include the song “Time and Space”.
I go to Google and first thing I find is a Facebook page. Sadly there is not much on it aside from three photos of Kristian. How come?
Then I find quite a few reviews on the web. But no information about the band. If they played live, if they had more songs, if there were more releases. Or even where is Kristian now? After Airliner and Aerospace, had he been in bands? That is the info I would love to find out.
I have this sort of recollection that he drummed for The Legends. Was that so? And I also stumbled upon a photo he took of Harvey Williams. Was he a photographer as well? Who remembers Airliner?
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