AK-momo

Line up :
Anna Karin von Malmborg : Vocals, Optigan and whistlings.
Mattias Olsson : Optigan, Mellotron and Orchestron.

Recordings :

AK-momo ( 2004 ) To be released by Exergy Music, Best Kept Secret and Parasol.

Description :

I met Anna Karin at the bar Debaser late July 2003. We didn´t really know each other but had met on several occasions due to mutual friends. We decided there and then that we should try to record something just for fun. She told me that she had been working with putting music to film and that she studied video art so I kind of took for granted that we would be doing something airy and ambient or perhaps screamy and distorted…

When we first started I thought it might be a good idea to show her some of the sounds that I usually work with and amongst them was of course the Optigan. She became super enthusiatic and we started fiddling around with the disc Classic guitar in 4/4 and within 30 minutes from inserting the disc we had recorded Greasy spoon. After that I showed her the Mellotron and did some reverse flute playing. The next track we recorded was using the romantic strings disc and we spent a bit more time on that because of the vocal arrangemnt in the choruses.

We didn´t think too much of it at first. It was just for plain fun but we booked in a couple of more afternoons and realized pretty fast that we weren´t making a " demo " or just noodling…We were making an album…and after five afternoons we actually had. All the songs were written there and then. Anna Karin had some snippets of lyrics cut up and ready to go but with no musical framing.

In August Anna Karin went back to London and I got back to my ordinary work with my bands…But in November/december I started finishing it up…adding some Mellotron and Orchestron and mixing of course.

One might wonder why this idea didn´t surface earlier but I think that it has a lot to do with vocal textures and fitting other sounds around the Optigan. Anna Karins voice fitted very well in with the Optigan and Mellotron which gave everything a profile and face more than just some weird collage typed mess.

Backstage at Umeå Open