" ... and poems for the unborn" Promo Tour
Stockholm-Lund-Malmö-Göteborg-Helsingborg
* Hotel Rival, Stockholm 2006 · 01 · 10
"Our opening gig on our release tour. It felt great trying out the new songs live! We were really happy after this one. Before the gig in Stockholm we celebrated the album release with a great dinner at Hotel Rival. Very nice food."
Sandy Mouche
Some fans were there. Josefine from Sthlm (aka Fine), SE wrote: "Kom precis hem från Rival där Ni var fantastiska! Synd bara att ni inte spelade Sandy Mouche eller Cest Pas Juste, men ni är verkligen roliga och fina. Som jag sa till dig Helena, det var underbart att höra din väna skånska stämma, den fick mig verkligen att längta hem! Lycka till med resten av gigen!"
* Mejeriet, Lund 2006 · 01 · 12
Nicceline from Lund, SE, was there: "I just wanted to say that I adore Sandy Mouche's music. Cherry Pie is my favourite song (I love it!). I wish you could play in Lund again soon ... ha de guttttt"
* KB, Malmö 2006 · 01 · 13
Anders, from Malmö, SE, wrote: "Enormt bra spelning på KB i fredags, var tvungen att köpa nya skivan, mkt trevlig! Hörde Cherry pie på z-tv för 2 år sen och efter det blev jag hooked, hur bra som helst! Take care!"
* Sticky Fingers, Göteborg 2006 · 01 · 14
According to the band: "A great show with great sound we think. We were very pleased with this one and some of our friends drove all the way from Lund/Malmö just to see us =)."
Photos by Björn Folbert and Robert Skytte
Photos by Elin
* SheMusic- Jeriko, Malmö 2006 · 02 · 08
Spångatan 38
Olof Martinsson (bass) and Christoffer Andersson (piano) have joint to the live band! Long time ago, Olof had played with Per Blomgren and me some time ago in our old project, Plastic Soul that we started at Gymnasiet (High School). By the way, Johan Duncanson another member of Plastic Soul, is singing with Radio Dept.
I thought in Christoffer too because we had gone to the same Folkhögskola in Skurup.
Kram / Hug
* The Tivoli, Helsingborg 2006 · 02 · 17
With Le Sport
Viktor, from Helsingborg, SE, was there: "Hej! Såg er ikväll i Helsingborg... Ni är flippin fantastic. Man går runt med ett "fånigt" leende på läpparna." Sofia (aka hjomase), from Helsingborg, SE, wrote: "
Såg er också i Helsingborg, det var underbart! kände lycka. Hela den kvällen, varm vacker lycka. Ni var så fina..er musik och ni.. Hoppas man får se er snart igen!".
Johan Bengtsson, from Örkelljunga, SE said:
Jag och Niklas var och såg Helena Josefsson och hennes band Sandy Mouche på The Tivoli. Mysigt och stämningsfullt.". Finally,
Johan Larsson, from Helsingborg, SE, wrote: "
Thank you very much for the marvelous gig in Helsingborg. It was "magiskt"! Wonderful end of a wonderful evening. My girlfriend and me feel thankful for all the feelings you have given to us. Wish we could see you soon." Spiderweb suit, by Sandy Mouche has been at
dagensskiva.com's Swedish student radio chart between February 2nd, 2006 and February 23rd, 2006.
February 2nd, 2006 -
01. (01) Dub Sweden - "We're so Loud"
02. (09) Alf - "Manchester Man"
03. (NY) Timo Räisänen - "Fear No Darkness, Promised Child"
04. (08) Christian Kjellvander w/Nina Persson - "Roaring 40's"
05. (02) Arctic Monkeys - "When the sun goes down"
20. (NY) Sandy Mouche - "Spiderweb Suit"
February 9th, 2006 -
01. (ÅT) Martha Wainright - "Bloody Mother F***ing A**hole"
02. (03) Timo Räisänen - "Fear No Darkness Promised Child"
03. (04) Arctic Monkey - "When the Sun Goes Down"
04. (01) Dub Sweden - "We're so Loud"
05. (NY) We Are Scientists - "The Great Escape"
09. (20) Sandy Mouche - "Spiderweb suit"
February 16th, 2006 -
01. (04) Dub Sweden - "We're so loud"
02. (03) Arctic Monkeys - "When the sun goes down"
03. (16) Firefox AK - "Madame, Madame!"
04. (NY) Hard Fi - "Cash machine"
05. (NY) Danko Jones - "Baby hates me"
12. (09) Sandy Mouche - "Spiderweb suit"
This is Stockholm, March 3.
Anders Mildner - Junk MusikSpring will be fanatastic :o) Every winter I wonder if it is going to come at all this year:o)
Winter is good too but now I have a cold again and only a little bit of my voice works, and today I will try to record in the studio with a Norwegian group and tomorrow I have two gigs so that´s a bit difficult :o)
I hope you are fine!
I don't even know how to begin, it's my first time here, I got a bit unsecure and somehow, I should admit it, over-thrilled. I am posting this because I felt a strange urge to 'review' your music my own way. I don't necessarily imply that it should mean something for you, but well, maybe beacause you are, right now, at the moment of blossoming as a band, some more touch-lines coming from outside could help you stressing the curves of your art.
I guess there's a devastating excellency in your music. I only heard a few songs (7) (being rather far from Sweden means, among others, not reaching your albums), and I totally rejected an - already unspecific - label like "indie". It's not particularly "indie", it’s rather organic and emotional which are the attributes of any good music, regarding the stream. It has a strange way of being exquisite, unexpected, straight, uncomplicated and sophisticated - all at the same time. The melange totally strikes you. I sat down and realized something really strange: that your voice (I am refering to you, dear Helena!) seems to be a sort of...ehm...how shall I put it?...a sort of airy/watery medium in which Martinique's voice floats...An uterus if you want. A sort of container for Martinique's voice that only moves around drawing gentle (but well-defined!!) lines. It's not a matter of combining or blending two kind of voices so it's pointless to discuss whether they fit. It's not about fitting together, but about containing each other.
It's also strange how you made me put aside any kind of usual "measurement" tools. As coming from gessle's music, I would say that, at gessle, you can easily say what fits and what doesn't, what's coherent and “who” is the coherence spoiler, what drags him down and what pulls him up; but here, at sandy mouche, you have to give up analyzing. It's not about coherence and it's not about melange either. Your way of dressing doesn't even have to deal with your lyrics, you can go from an extreme to another, you can wear a cowboy suit and come on stage riding a horse, the very essence of sandy mouche is not altered. I don’t know if it comes from your talent only, maybe it also comes from your approaching daily life (that’s also a talent, I assume!); many artists are getting personal, but that’s far from being the shortest way to a really good music. So I guess it’s more about your being like a filter-paper that filters the reality in a certain way. It must be Helena’s beliving in elfs that really makes the music getting out of you in a certain airy way. Oh, and something more: I guess I could notice, here and there, usually very well-hidden under gentle sounds, some really dramatic shades. And that’s why I said above that your music aslo has something organic and painfully strong, not only dreamy and tender and sweet. It says everything about the tragic and yet imponderable feeling of life!
Well, there is much more to say. But I do stop here, it’s too much coming at once.
Thanking you for living this way,
"Just Emma", from Sandy Mouche's guestbook
Oh wow...!
That was a stunning piece of art itself, the thoughts you´ve written down! It feels like you have really understood where we want to reach, even though we have a lot of more development to do in future records to get closer to the goal. Like you share our vision in some way :o)
Thank you for listening with so interested and patient ears to our music. Then it feels like we are allowed to give you what we have to offer.
Have a lovely weekend!
No, Helena, no “stunning piece of art” from me two days ago. You are the artful one. And I am not saying it because I am a polite guest in a steady guestbook, but because I am very aware of the fact that singing and composing differently, or, in a more general perspective, doing things differently is NOT a guarantee in itself for creating a totally “something else”. That’s why, even if listening to quite much “indie”, I’ve hardly had the impression of excellency; it’s rather sad to hear people struggling to avoid a cliché and getting ridiculously intricated and incoherent. In this case, no thanx, allow me to get back to Harrison and Lennon. “Making a difference” doesn’t necessarily imply a serious act of creation.
So when I said you’re artful, I was actually expressing my amazement when realizing the fact that you’re NOT only making a difference (which can be quite easy from a certain point on), but building a perspective of your own in a very coherent manner; I think it’s non-sense to talk about your music as opposing to the “main-stream” (whatever would that mean) since I do not hear in Sandy Mouche any definite breaking-ups with the good old pop; it’s rather about re-thinking and re-filtering its elements – something that any creator, regardless the stream, should do in order to become 1. plausible, 2. original and 3. (if the wind is auspicious) lovable by others’ ears.
Since you said that a lot of improvement should be done in your future albums, I imagine you also have more mesmerizing arrangement ideas to bring out (I confess I got totally fascinated by the ones you’ve already sorted out).
You said I have a partient ear. But that’s not true at all; I am not patient, I am just careful and totally committed to the sounds I like. I naturally become a very careful listener to all the things that previously struck me out of the blue. Then all the later efforts become my most pleasant obligation. So Sandy Mouche struck me right from the start. All the other musical impacts in the latest 2 years are miles away from this. So thank you again for your being artful.
ps: I do get stunned (yet grabbed) by some very dark shades I sometimes sense in your songs; it’s like a paradoxical “grey sunshine” subtly irradiating around.
I have been listening to both albums a few times in a row earlier this morning. I tried to feel and hear the differences, the new achievements, the backward actions, the recoils, the cohesiveness etc. I think “…and poems for the unborn” pays more tribute to undertones of all kinds. It’d be almost communsensical to say “it’s more mature” since it chronologically comes after the “White Lucky Dragon”.
But I don’t know if it’s really (or only) about getting more mature musically. It’s like you (Helena) and Martinique, after testing your human and musical skills of blending voices and personalities in your first album, each of you have been trying all along your second album to emphasise the other’s musical and human presence; it’s like each of you has now his and her very own musical standing point and tries to contribute at the general coherence of the album through his and her very personal musical abilities and human experience. It’s like you grew on each other without the entangling efforts that seem quite clear in “White Lucky…”. The song “Une Histoire” seems to hang between the two worlds; it sounds like making the linkage from one stage to another. I love it!
So “…and poems…” album gained in profound coherence while losing the surface smoothness of the “White Lucky…”. Martinique’s voice from “Le Mistral” reminds me of the great steady voice of the latest Françoise Hardy and your (Helena!) voice from all songs reminds me of no one else except of yourself. All my efforts to compare you with some other singer have constantly failed!! Hallelujah!!!
And oh, I guess I hear a lot of 70’s-75’s pop vibe in your latest work…As I said in another comment somewhere below (that you didn’t reply to…was I too unspecific and complicated?), it’s non-sense to oppose your music to the good old main-stream pop, since it’s rather about re-filtering and re-defining some of its classic elements.
Anyway, have a great weekend. I do believe in your music and I still have that great feeling of unexpectedly getting in touch with something I simply adore.
:o) That is how your message made me feel, and I needed it because I have the flu and I can´t sing at all for days:o)
...you know Helena...sometimes, psychologically speaking, one needs that flu and that damn-not-being-able-to-sing-a-note because it keeps you somehow vulnerable...I think we don't need to feel strong all the time, not even when it comes to our greatest abilities (and maybe especially when it comes to them). Temporary weakness and vulnerability keep us closer to ourselves. Did you lose a gig? Well, maybe. That's totally unpleasant for your general daily life but totally needed for enforcing a true contanct with your innermost amazing singing skills. (and then we should all admit that not being able to do something at a certain moment because of some objective reasons that are not up to us - i.e. the flu - brings a sort of weird and even slightly selfish calmness.) Don't fight the flu, treat it as an unwelcomed friend!! hehe
Have a splendid day.
I think you are right! Have a fine day yourself :o)
Virtual hug from me to you
I was thinking about something: your musical attitude seems to me very mature, I do not feel any groping in the way you write and sing and perform, as if you'd know already what and how
things should be done...It's like your inspiration has a "direction" which is something very very rare I guess. Some composers and singers are struggling half a life to dare to express themselves this way and also to dare to close a personal circuit showing their listeners that they have a coherent inspiration. Most of them are only able to give off SPARKS instead of a well defined "vision"... God, what a difference between those who only (and easily) REACT through music and those who are actually able to shoulder and express a musical perspective that lays in themselves...
What a long way to go for Gessle 'til he managed to do things the way he does them nowadays... And how suspicious (yet caring and favorable) my eye/ear is when it comes to his future approach of his own inspiration impulses!... And having said that, how I admire your ferm, unfluctuating way of expressing your music from A to Z!
Nisse Hults historiska snedsteg is a drama-comedy that has been broadcasted in Swedish SVT in January and February. 6 episodes, directed by Carl Åstrand, have been watched: 1 - Bellman; 2- Drottning Kristina; 3 - Sven Hedin; 4 - Gustav Vasa; 5 - Tre Kronor; and 6 - Alfred Nobel.
20 years ago today, I waited inside a record store. After 30 minutes, the truck arrived and I could buy the very first copy of Elvis Costello’s ”King of America”. I went home, listened to the first side, while recording it on a C-90 tape, took the tape and my camera, got on my bike and went to a party on the other side of the town. We listened to side one over and over again.
