Swedish~ Stereo~

History of Swedish synth-band Lustans Lakejer has roots in 70ies and though the biggest commercial success of the band was back in 80s bringing some well charted hits, Lustans Lakejer still keeps respectable status falling into the spot of media with new releases. When Agnes was disqualified on Melodifestivalen-2007 Lustans Lakejer has entered instead with the song "Allt vi en gång trodde på" but has taken only 7th place.
However band has come back this year with new single "Det Verkade Så Viktigt Då" and new album "Elixir" to be released in a few days on January 26th. And still we can call it schlager-related stuff, not just because Lustans Lakejer music sounds a lot like synth-schlager to our ears but because of second single - duet with Jenny Silver "Eld & Vatten" who's going to take part in MF just in 2 weeks. Quite intimate song that turned to be smoking hot in live performance. This mini-gig even featured not less than Marina Schiptjenko (BWO, Vacuum, Page) as keyboard-player and backing singer (that made us realize how much we miss her after BWO's break-up!). Another new presented song was "Skönhet kräver ingen tolkning".

Recently I told you about Caroline Roosmark's amazing calendar where she involved such stars like Anna Bergendahl, Darin, Helen Sjöholm and Nanne and here goes another cool calendar from Djurens Rätt (organisation fighting for animal rights) with loads of another popular artists like Linda Sundblad, Marie Picasso and Caroline af Ugglas, below you can watch whole set of photos, they're in small size but you can check brilliant pics of September-mermaid, Adam Tensta and Thomas Di Leva in a better quality.

Marina Schiptjenko (Vacuum, BWO)
Dennis Lyxzén (Refused)
Thomas Di Leva
Marie Picasso
Britta Persson
Adam Tensta
Patrik Arve (Teddybears STHLM)
Linda Sundblad
Caroline Af Ugglas
September
Khoma
Regina Lund

I've just found out that for almost half a year of this blog life I never told you about one of my most favorite Swedish projects ever - Vacuum, so I will now!
Vacuum turned to be unexpectable sensation of 1996 when Alexander Bard who was well-known for his international massive pop-project Army Of Lovers has put the group on hold and started completely different project - not less extravagant but in its own way. Dark synth-pop sung by androginy-styled vocalist Mattias Lindblom and Alexander with another new face Marina Schiptjenko on keyboards, they sang about science, religion, culture, the whole conception turned to combined fresh idea in accessible and strong pop-music so it turned to be a blast on international level and many parts of Europe have given up without a fight after debut single "I Breathe". It has also peaked at #2 in home country and debut album "The Plutonium Cathedral" reached #12 that's not bad at all. Without pause Vacuum released the album "Seance at the Chaebol" that was more targetted to other European countries. In the end of 90s Alexander turned to new project Alcazar and only Marina and Mattias were left as active members of Vacuum (with Anders Wollbeck as permanent songwriter from the beginning of the project) and soon they released two re-editions of the last album with some new songs so all the singles of band - "Science Of The Sacred", "Let The Mountain Come To Me", "Pride In My Religion", "Tonnes Of Attraction", "Icaros", "Starting Where The Story Ended" were still floating around European radiostations and music channels.
When Marina has left the band and gone to BWO Mattias and Anders released new album "Your Whole Life Is Leading Up To This" - less commercial and darker electronic with singles "Fools Like Me", "They Do It", "The Void" demonstrating refreshed side of Vacuum. Through last 10 years Anders and Mattias also worked as songwriting team with many Swedish and international artists like Alcazar, Julie Bethelsen, Rachel Stevens, Nouveau Riche, Magnus Carlsson, Daniel Lindström, Monrose, Tarja Turunnen, Cinema Bizarre, Garou and many others.
Few years ago "Your Whole Life Is Leading Up To This" has got re-edition with new songs "Walk On The Sun" and "Only Human" and though it's not the latest singles I'd like to show you these songs, they are different but both amazing, when "Walk On The Sun" is powerful rhythmic pop-rock radio-killer, "Only Human" is more gentle acoustic-guitar based song - thoughtful and touching to goosebumps with amazing vocal of Mattias.
Vacuum still keeps releasing new songs, recently performing set of new ones so I hope soon I'll be able to tell you about their next album.