First Aid Kit – The Big Black and the Blue
Swedish indie / folk duo consisting of the young sisters Klara Söderberg (vocals, guitar), Johanna Söderberg (vocals) Söderberg from Stockholm.
The debut EP ” Drunken Trees ” was released on the 9th of April 2008 in Sweden on the label Rabid Records, owned by the Swedish electronic duo The Knife. The EP was re-released through Wichita Recordings early 2009. Their debut album The Big Black & The Blue was released on January 25th, 2010.
Other point of view… This beautiful album by Swedish sisters Klara and Johanna Soderberg displays extraordinary musical maturity and technical dexterity given that they are only 16 and 19 years old respectively. The radiant simplicity and purity of vocal tone displayed in these twelve economical arrangements is magical. Their voices combine in harmonies which possess the capacity to express complex and convincing emotion.
The Roches (sisters Maggie, Terre and Suzzy) in their glorious heyday come to mind from time to time and that is no bad thing. It has everything to do with the combination of pathos, gently quirky humour and soaring vocal pyrotechnics. The album flows from A to Z in a seamless line of inspired and flawless artistry.
It’s difficult to pick out highlights when everything is so good but standout tracks would have to include : the whistful ‘A Window Opens’ with its waltz-time melody and terse laconic narrative; the heart-wrending country-folk lament ‘Ghost Town’; ‘I Met Up With The King’, with its hauntingly surreal imagery and curious instrumental decoration and the blissfully plaintive reflections of ‘Wills Of The River’.
The true beauty of this music arises from the simple fact that everything we hear is exactly in the right place. Balanced, coherent and consummately performed, First Aid Kit’s debut album is, a truly remarkable and memorable achievement.
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NOTE: I posted this yesterday but, apparently I had it all mixed up and posted it under another band that goes by the same name First Aid Kit [ Barcelona ] My apology… in case you wondering ” Swedish FAK / Barcelona FAK “. My fav here FAK Barcelona as its much more than just indie / infie-folk. That said even the Swedish ” FAK ” is a pretty good listen.
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Artist – First Aid Kit
Album – The Big Black and the Blue
Release Date – 2010
Genre – Folk, Indie-folk [ SIMPLY STUNNING ]
Tracklist
01 In the Morning
02 Hard Believer
03 Sailor Song
04 Waltz for Richard
05 Heavy Storm
06 Ghost Town
07 Josefin
08 A Window Opens
09 Winter Is All Over You
10 I Met Up With the King
11 Wills of the River
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First Aid Kit – The Big Black and the Blue
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Recommendations: Pascal Pinon | Miaou | Epic 45 | Telstar Ponies | Technocolor Skies
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