Swedish psychedelic rock act Dungen will release its fifth album, “Tio Bitar” (Ten Pieces) on May 15 via Kemado. The group returned to the house where it recorded its 2005 breakthrough, “Ta Det Lugnt,” in the southern Swedish town of Smaland. Dungen founder Gustav Ejstes produced.
“It’s a pretty small village and very quiet place,” Dungen guitarist Reine Fiske tells Billboard.com. “Sometimes you get the feeling it’s deserted or something. But we’ve had a lot of heartfelt fun and joyous moments there.”
Fiske says “Tio Bitar” is much more “direct” than Dungen’s previous albums. “It’s shorter [and] more ‘song-based’ to some extent. But not as a commercial move, I assure you,” Fiske explains. “Maybe it´s a bit more anarchic at times, almost in some kind of decadent and ridiculous way. Some songs were just shaped from various weird, exhausted moments, often late at night, a little dozed on wine or beer.”
Dungen has spent the last several years touring, and Fiske says playing live so often reflected the mood of the album. “It has influenced the music in a way, but the recordings have been done the same way as they always have been done. Layers of sound,” Fiske says.
But currently there are no plans for Dunger to tour, with Fiske revealing that Ejstes is “somewhere in the woods, writing and recording more.”
