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Audrey

Signed to label: Stereo Test Kit Records

Audrey are...

Anna Tomlin - drums & vocals
Victoria Skoglund -guitar & vocals
Emelie Molin - cello, piano & vocals
Rebecka Kristiansson - bass & vocals

Audrey are a four-piece from Sweden and have been compared to Low, Björk, Mogwai, Red House Painters and Sigur Rós.

Describing Audrey's music is no easy task. If the group has succeeded in finding a central theme, it's a balance in the melodies - shimmering, beautiful moments of pop meet dark sadness. The harmonies (everyone in the group shares vocal efforts) shift quickly between keys and moods. Straightforward, conventional narrative is replaced by abstract meanings which strengthen the melodies.

"I like it when the lyrics can mean different things, that we give clues to our audience. Sometimes we can write quite incoherent things, but we are looking for a feeling in the music," says guitarist Victoria Skoglund.

In the Spring of 2005, Audrey’s debut EP was released in the UK and the band toured as support to their Gothenburg friend and contemporary José González. Some warm reviews and a BBC 6 Music radio session followed, along with more UK shows the following Autumn.

In July 2005, the four girls went into Gothenburg’s Elements studio along with producer Paul Bothén, in order to record their debut album. Paul and the band expected the recording to take two weeks, in the end it took a total of two months, with sessions continuing into 2006. The result is a landscape of sounds, rich and grand, with a naked honesty often lacking in so many over-produced efforts. Think Steve Albini meets Don Fleming meets Dave Fridmann. Vocal harmonies mix with dark pop melodies, post-rock sounds and orchestral arrangements. Perhaps one can hear respectful nods to Cat Power, Karin Dreijers of The Knife, Dirty Three, Low and Sigur Rós, but the result is very much their own.

Still in their early twenties, with an independence of spirit and a disdain for musical cliché, this is the sound of a band beyond their years, yet only just beginning. This is Audrey's debut album. This is Visible Forms.