Recent Stories with tag sweden

It was a gorgeous day on Saturday, but it was gorgeous inside, too, at the sold-out Arctic Summer Fashion Show held at the Nordic Heritage Museum. Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden (this was Sweden Week, after all) was the guest of honor, the vice honorary consul of Finland, Kristiina Hiukka, was the honorary chair, and Denmark's Ole Henriksen, of the skin care line, emceed. Freddie Ljungberg rushed over from a Sounders game, arriving late but in a tuxedo, so it evened out. 

Designers from Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, and Norway were in the spotlight, including Moods of Norway, Nudie Jeans, 15x15, AOCO by Annika, Polarn O. Pyret, Molo Kids, Marimekko, Spaksmannsspjarir, Happysthlm, and Emami. Kids took the runway first--some reluctantly--but then it was all business.

Friday night, the Triple Door was full of music fans eating and drinking and taking in the Swedish singer-songwriter double-header. (It goes without saying that, as always, the service at the Triple Door was impeccable.) First up was Taken By Trees, ex-Concretes' Victoria Bergsman's multi-culti solo project.  She recorded her last full-length, East of Eden, in Pakistan, so on the album, as well as live, there's all the exotic sounds of Central Asia side by side with Victoria's chilly Swedish voice and low-key stage presence (see "To Lose Someone" above). 

To be fair, Taken by Trees did partner their live performance with a video running behind the band featuring repetitive images of snow leopards, tigers, and other cute kitties--so I'm not complaining. Her cover of Animal Collective's "My Girls" ("My Boys," also on East of Eden) was well-received, and Victoria brought it back home by closing her set with a song in Swedish....

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Tonight, the Triple Door has a doubleheader of the Swedish chanteuse variety: Taken By Trees, the solo project of Victoria Bergsman, formerly of The Concretes, and El Perro Del Mar, the Spanish name for Gothenburg singer Sarah Assbring. [Insert ass joke here.]

Both make lovely and sad music. Taken By Trees errs on the side of exotic, with Bergsman crafting Swedish songs via Karachi, a far cry from her Motown-meets-Mazzy Star work with the Concretes. Her latest album, East of Eden, was recorded in Pakistan (check out Taken by Trees' documentary), and it shows. The album's instrumentation leans Sufi, with keyboards and marimbas lending depth and warmth to Bergsman's chilly voice.

Meanwhile, El Perro Del Mar has always been a lovely downer, starting with the third track of her first album, where she drunk-dials her ex and implores him, "come on over, baby, there's a party going on," and makes the subsequent "be-bop-a-lula" sound heart-wrenching. Her latest album, Love Is Not Pop has some (relatively) upbeat laid-back pop songs mixed in with her usual sway-happy ballads. And definitely check out her cover above of the XX's "Shelter," recorded nine days ago.

Sounds like on this tour, they've been putting on shows featuring video and multimedia, which would work well on the Mainstage. Taken By Trees and El Perro Del Mar play the Triple Door tonight. Doors are at 6 p.m., show at 8 p.m. Tickets: $18.