Nicolai Dunger

The story goes that Nicolai Dunger was discovered singing and playing guitar on his balcony in Piteå, Sweden. But the representative for Telegram who signed him was probably not very happy with the experimental music that emerged from the supposed singer/songwriter and the record Songs Wearing Clothes, which few people have heard about. But Dunger obviously had a lot of talent and was given another try with the album Eventide, recorded together with the string quartet Tämmelkvartetten. This album sold even less than the 1,500 copies of the previous album, and Dunger, who now lived in Stockholm, earned his living as a gardener. Playing at Hultfredsfestivalen, he met Ebbot Lundberg from the Soundtrack of Our Lives and they decided to make an album together. In 1998, they recorded the EP First Born Track, which was only released as a promo, and the next year they recorded This Cloud Is Learning together in the Soundtrack of our Lives' studio, White Noise. This was Dunger's most accessible album so far, but was still rather experimental. Probably as a result of the collaboration with the more well-known Lundberg, this album got much more attention than the earlier ones, and the reactions were favorable. And even though it did not sell well, it sold slightly more in France and England, and Dunger went on a tour to the Continent, backing Emiliana Torrini. Meanwhile, Dunger's record company agreed to let an oil company use one of his songs in a commercial. And although, upon his return from touring, Dunger expressed disapproval regarding this turn of events, he used the money to record Blind Blemished Blues, the first album in a planned vinyl trilogy, recorded together with Esbjörn Svensson's jazz trio. This album was a return to the more experimental, and the 500 LPs that...