Nov. 15, 2011
This week the Swedish pop duo Korallreven release their long awaited debut album An Album by Korallreven on Acéphale records. "Long awaited" because it's been ages, well, two years, since their first single "Loved-Up" hit the airwaves and caused lovers of synth-y and dreamy, warm and sweet electropop (as made by the Tough Alliance, jj, or Panda Bear to name a few) go to all mushy. A few other just as amazing singles have come out since then and happily, they are all on the record. To celebrate the release, we asked half the duo, Marcus Joons, to send along a list and he sent us a travelogue of locales around the globe that have deep meaning for him.....Samoa
Korallreven all started in my mind when I was in Samoa in 2007. I felt that I wanted to make pop songs that were spiritual like the local Samoan Catholic church choirs, hypnotic like the breathtaking tropical nature and above that they should all have a feeling of finally reaching the other side, And it should be yearning to get back to that place, that Samoan state of mind, you know. That state of mind when you feel as carefree and - haha! - as young as yesterday as I felt when I was there.
SA SA SAMOA (FEATURING JULIANNA BARWICK) by KORALLREVEN
Sandared, Sweden
This is the small, three thousand inhabitants village on the Swedish countryside outside of Gothenburg where I am from. It’s the calmest place on Tellus. It’s lovely to come here, to my family who still lives here, to slow down though the days here feels like that they are 48 hours long.
Malmö, Sweden
This is where Daniel is from and it was here, when I moved here for a year in 2003, that we first met. Daniel was the kind of person you always met in the bars and clubs, always smiling and up and slowly during all those late nights in Malmö and Copenhagen we became friends.
Stockholm, Sweden
In 2009, when we both had been livin’ in the Swedish capital for some two years, I told Daniel about my musical vision - or dream - that I had got on Samoa. He liked it and the very same afternoon, just after we had played some football (soccer), we started to record right away.
AS YOUNG AS YESTERDAY by KORALLREVEN
New York City
In 2010, when we still were working on the album, I moved to New York for a year. I think that this inspired the record heavily since I got the same carefree feelin’ here while walkin’ around under the skyscrapers and along the Hudson River and to live a life of extremely late nights and early mornings as I had had in Samoa. I just felt sooo free. We sent some stuff back and forth during this time and in the summer Daniel came over and then we recorded some songs in the extreme heat - like "Honey Mine" and "As Young As Yesterday." It was a pretty time.
Los Angeles
When we finished the album in Stockholm in February this year we went to LA to drive around and to see if the album fitted the scenery. We drove around in Malibu, to Joshua Tree and to Palm Springs, and I think that it - aside of the forthcoming video for "As Young As Yesterday" - is my highest moment with Korallreven. It was so real and surreal at the same time. And, yeah, it felt like that it was made for Southern California’s golden light and laidback lifestyle.”
The Phillipines
It’s all still up in the air but we might go here and play this winter. We have been talkin’ about stayin’ for some extra weeks and startin’ to record the next album while we’re here. It just feels right and you shall always trust your feelings.
BRITNEY SPEARS - TILL THE WORLD ENDS (KORALLREVEN VERSION) by KORALLREVEN