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Best new Scandi releases in June Their first new music in 6 years – Swedish outfit NONONO have taken us all by surprise and returned with a comeback song, Our Time Is Now. After bursting onto the scene in 2013 with Pumpin Blood (which has racked up over 100 million streams to date on Spotify alone), the trio enjoyed hits aplenty up until their break in 2018. Now they’re back – and they haven’t lost any of that quirky sonic charm that made so many of us fall for them first time around. And as back then – this new single sounds like nothing else around at the moment.
that will have found him through his music on A Beautiful Life.
Danish artist Christopher had a pretty awesome 2023, starring in the Netflix film A Beautiful Life and providing the tunes for its soundtrack too. Now, since that incredible career highlight, he’s back with a brand-new single of his own – ONE. The anthemic song already sounds like a potential Danish radio smash in the making, but wisely, also caters well to the hordes of new fans
Sweden’s Benjamin Ingrosso has teamed up with German producer Purple Disco Machine, Jamaican artist Shenseea and all-time icon of music Nile Rogers in a fabulous new collab. Honey Boy is the sweet fruit of all their labour, released as a single in May. It’s dreamy disco-pop with a chorus that bears repeating (and so they do repeat it, a lot!). Fans of Benjamin’s music will be pleased to learn that it’s es-
By Karl Batterbee
This summer she’ll release a new EP of songs called Where Flowers Grow, but ahead of that, Swedish artist ORKID is out with her latest single. The similarly floral themed Bed Of Roses lives up to its title – it’s a strikingly beautiful piece that catches your attention right away. With a rich production and a decadently disassociated delivery of the vocal, ORKID’s Bed Of Roses is something to lie back and luxuriate to.
sentially the more grown up follow-up to what remains one of the best songs of his career to date – Don’t Leave Me Hanging. He’s at his best when he’s leaning into the utterly funked-up side of his songwriting. www.scandipop.co.uk
Monthly Illustration
The unplanned visit It was an ordinary evening and the doorbell rang. Outside stood my pal who was just passing by on her way home from work. She thought she would just pop by for a cuppa. “Come on in,” I said, “We’re about to have dinner, you fancy some?” She did. She stayed for dinner, played a board game with the kids, and then headed home. It seems like a completely normal thing to have happened, right? But in Sweden, not so much. In Sweden, you book a dinner date ahead of time, clean the house, look up a nice recipe, put on nice clothes and it’s an EVENT. I struggle with this way of organising my social life. Perhaps it’s because I’m no good at making plans or I don’t own any nice clothes... Perhaps it’s because I know that the best things happen when you don’t make plans. Good conversation generally can’t be planned. 92 | Issue 167 |
June 2024
By Gabi Froden
I need to live in a place that accepts me like this. A place where you can ring the doorbell, pop by for a below-average dinner, shuffle some clothes off the sofa, and play a board game on any given day. Where chatting with your pals is something you don’t schedule. It’s something that happens when one of you just pops by on your way home from work.
I often think that I can’t live in Sweden because my house is always messy, I cook things that take max. 30 minutes and I have low standards when it comes to my attire. There’s paint or dust or something random on most of my clothes. And they are unfashionable because I’m an illustrator and have no money to look good.
Gabi Froden is a Swedish illustrator and writer, living in Glasgow with her husband and two children. Her children’s and YA books are published in Sweden by Bonnier Carlsen and Natur&Kultur. www.gabifroden.com