With his hit song, Panda featured on Kanye West's album The Life of Pablo in 2016, the career of Desiigner got off to a quick start. The aforementioned song reached number one on Billboard charts. At just 19, he was among the most popular rappers in the industry. He released his first mixtape New English in June 2016. Desiigner has […]
A Canadian rapper is coming to Stockholm and no, it's not Drake. It's Tory Lanez. The 25-year-old first gained popularity with his 2014 mixtape, Lost Cause and continued his rise with his debut album I Told You in 2016, which reached as high as number two on some music charts. Lanez mixes his style between Rap and […]
On her debut EP Away For All Time, Many Voices Speak’s Matilda Mård showed herself to be a master of cinematic melancholy, sadness rendered with touching grace and elegance. This talent culminated in her covering Blue Moon, probably the ultimate example of the genre. She released her debut album Tank Town at the end of August, […]
Lykke Li is probably still at the top of the table for ‘making music that makes misery sound beautiful’, but Hater have been running her hard over the past couple of years for the title. The four-piece are back with a new album, Siesta, this autumn, and new single It’s So Easy is the first track out of […]
Since their first joint exhibition 53 years ago at Röhsska Museum, Ulla and Gustav Kraitz have made their mark on the ceramics world. They’ve arranged over 100 exhibitions, and their work can be found in many Swedish museums. They have gone in deep in their pursuit of excellence in their craft, using Chinese ceramic techniques […]
In a year of weird news, one of the more normal things to occur was the annoucement that comedy giants Dave Chappelle and Jon Stewart were going on tour. Chappelle, iconic from his mid 00s sketch show Chappelle’s Show, had returned to the scene last year with four Netflix specials, and was joined by the former The […]
A few months ago, we wondered exactly what Héloïse Letissier was up to. The superstar behind Franco-pop geniuses Christine and The Queens had only given a hint of an upcoming album (her first since 2016’s Chaleur Humaine, originally released in France in 2014, put her in the musical big leagues), a poster with the “-tine […]
Artipelag’s autumn exhibition Margiela/ Hermès takes a look back at a notable time in fashion history, and the collaboration between Belgian designer Martin Margiela and the historic fashion house Hermès. Between the years 1997 and 2003, Margiela was given the task of creating women’s collections for the 200-year-old brand. This collaboration created fashion that went […]
When Lykke Li returned this summer, possibly motivated by Sarah Klang’s challenge to her title as Sweden’s saddest popstar, she made sure not to do things by half, hence the title of her new album, So Sad, So Sexy. But while the sadness remained, she’d updated her sound, moving away from the old-school acoustic pop […]
Norwegians Highasakite were always pop, but always a band. Now, pared down to a duo after the release of their dark 2016 album Camp Echo, Ingrid Helene Håvik and Trond Bersu are embarking on a new adventure. The debut single of the new era, 5 Million Miles indicated that they were aiming down the throats […]
MØ’s journey from teenage punk playing at squat raves around Europe to major label-signed popstar has been one of the more curious narratives in music over the last few years. After releasing an album of heavy, rough-edged art pop called No Mythologies To Follow in 2014, her career pivoted around one song, the monster hit […]
Increasingly in the news recently is the prominence of fantasy, and the idea of a lot of people deciding to indulge their fantastical visions of the world rather than confront it head-on. The journalist Kurt Andersen’s book Fantasyland, a history of America from the point of view of its unreality issues, hit the New York […]
Finish pop auteur Jaakko Eino Kalevi has been absent from the solo album game since 2015’s self-titled record, but now he’s finally back. He made his return in August with Emotions In Motion, a brisk, slick synth-pop track, and followed it up with People In The Centre Of The City. His new album Out Of […]
It’s unfair to call MGMT’s new album Little Dark Age a ‘comeback’. After all, the duo’s 2010 album Congratulations might be their best, and their 2013 self-titled wasn’t bad either. But those were both weird records, and Little Dark Age is definitely the most conventionally listenable music they’ve made since they became monstrously big with their debut Oracular […]
Three years ago, Dolores Haze released debut album The Haze Is Forever as Stockholm’s coolest new punks, four kids barely out of school playing abrasive, fuck-you rock music. Three years on, things have changed a little. After recalibrating as a three-piece (due to losing a member to an alpaca farm obviously), they’ve expanded their sound from […]
There are many paths to pop stardom, but Tove Styrke’s took a little bit of a swing. The singer and musician initially came up through talent show Idol, and released a self-titled debut album back in 2010. But she then suffered from burn out and took some time off, before exploding back onto the scene […]
After a brief closure for renovations between March and May, ArkDes returns in June with the exhibition Public Luxury. Featuring the work of architects and designers, the exhibition focuses on experimental work that asks how architecture interacts with and makes possible our society. The goal here is to spark debate and search for solutions to […]
Look, we’re heading into Christmas season now and there’s nothing we can do to stop it. So the various cultural institutions of Stockholm are getting their programmes into gear for a little more of a yuletide feeling. And Kungliga Operan are blessed in that regard, as they can pull out The Nutcracker (Nötknäpparen) as their […]
Anton Vidokle is an artist with an impressive CV, having founded the digital publishing platform e-flux way back in the early days of the internet in 1998. This new exhibition at Tensta Konsthall features three of his films that investigate the concept of Russian Cosmism, an early 20th century philosophical movement that took in a […]
