bio

People are strange. We strive for harmony and communality during our lives, but time after time we end up in emotional turmoil and disconnection. It is sometimes frightening how much people can affect each other.

In 2009, no one orchestrates the frantic search for connection better than Lowood from Stockholm, Sweden. Therese Johansson, the main figure and songwriter in Lowood, stems from the pensive but uneventful rural parts of middle Sweden, something which spawned both the creativity and yearning that defines her and musical partner Kicki Halmos’ debut album. ‘Close To Violence’ tells of the leaving and of the longing that is as much connected with Smalltown, Sweden as the tribulation of complex affection.

‘Close To Violence’ is a cathartic pop album, a collection of songs which contrasts perfect musical harmony and minor key melodies with stories of imperfect relations. Therese Johansson has spared none of her personal reflections in the songs: fundamentally the debut album is a manifest of one defining, but crashed, love story. The songs on ‘Close To Violence’ resemble fragments that tell of love’s hope and failure, but are ultimately the chapter that closes the book on this part of her life.

The fragility pierces, deep and forthright, and is sometimes so naked that it becomes almost overbearing. But Lowood don’t carry a message of resignation – there is no weakness here. Instead, the music and words convey hope and willpower between the lines.

Lowood’s soundscapes are sometimes desolate and sparce, sometimes as impalpable and intangible as air, but occasionally burst with the force of conviction that resembles the electric legacy of pop’s eternals. Part Joy Division, part Red House Painters, part Low, part Stina Nordenstam, ‘Close To Violence’ is obviously a work by lovers of music of intense emotional charge. But Lowood’s musical language is in the true sense of the word their own. Therese Johanssons personal songwriting, sense of melody and unparalleled voice appears to have been made for the sort of introspective pop music and expression that has become a necessity in her life. Therese and Kicki effortlessly complete each other, and with Therese’s crisp guitar adorned by Kicki’s lush keyboard melodies, this album is a masterwork of ethereal but jagged beauty.

While having a base in unadulterated, vaporous pop music, Lowood travels effortlessly between genres and sometimes keeps unorthodox company – especially on the live circuit. During the last two years, Therese and Kicki have played a plethora of solo gigs in every different kind of venue you can think of, from café’s to rock clubs to huge festivals. Lowood masters Bruce Springsteen celebratory concerts just as easy as the live company of such different acts as Tiger Lou, Asha Ali, Kristoffer Åström and even the post-metal juggernaut of Cult Of Luna, which brought Lowood along for a European tour in 2008. It seems everyone, despite mundane genre limitations, is inspired by Lowood’s nerve.

“We’re all in this now”, Therese Johansson sings in ‘You’re no different’. And just like that our determination to try again connects. Suddenly we feel the urge to go out there, to repair what has been broken.

While Therese whispers softly in our ears, ‘Close To Violence’ makes us understand.

/Jesper Liveröd