One Track Mind

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Hailing from the fertile music scene in Malmö, Swedish duo Fredrik create music that is at once haunting and gentle. Their sonic specters are, like Casper, friendly ghosts looming over the fringe lands where bedroom electronics, folk, and dream-pop intersect. The Kora Records released the band’s first album, Na Na Ni, in 2008 and will release their follow-up, Trilogi, on January 26th. Trilogi is actually a compilation of three EPs Fredrik released following their first LP and is–in the fashion of all of The Kora’s releases–impeccably presented in packaging the band describes as “charcoal cardboard with corbeau greens and matte silver highlights.” (If that sounds pretty, trust me, it looks even better.)

“Locked in the Basement,” the twelfth song on the disc, feels like being lost in the woods as a child while clutching your favorite stuffed animal for security. Shadows elongate, twigs snap in some unseen corner, strange birds alight on boughs above, but there are no feelings of dread, only mystery and wonder. Guitar harmonics and stuttered samples begin to flesh out the song’s rhythm and melody and are joined soon thereafter by the pair’s breathy vocals and some mildly distorted keyboards. Taken as a whole, the elements are as delicate as they are affecting–the latter sensibility driven home by the titular refrain. Fredrik makes challenging music, which means many listeners will greet a song like this with a shrug or perplexed look; however, for those willing to take the plunge, the duo serve up a singular, provocative vision.