Slowgold - Lugna (Blue Vinyl LP)

Facts When Slowgold returns with a new album, we meet an artist who has chosen to strip down her expression to the point where only the most essential elements are allowed to remain. The result is a record where the lyrics take center stage, dressed in simple yet clever arrangements. The aim has been to find contrasts in the music, to pursue change with small means. To let things happen in the simplest possible way.

"I've realized for myself that I've been very focused on simplifying and stripping things down in my life in general," says Amanda Werne. "Stripping down to bring out clearer contrasts that are easier to relate to. It's largely about relationships in the music. You might first see one side, and then suddenly you realize there's another, and maybe another. But I'm always trying to reach a clarity that comes with simplicity."

As on previous albums, Werne wrote the songs herself, alone in a cabin in Skåne with no electricity or running water.

"I sat there and wrote so many songs. I was pretty scared many times! The process has looked similar to before, but this time I wrote with the idea that it would just be me playing everything. Simplification is something enriching; the real comes through, the matter-of-fact and the true come through. Simplifying requires that you return to yourself."

"Lugna" is Slowgold's eighth album and is released on Knippla Records.