equality factor: empowering and very hopeful melancholy
label: Pangur Records / the Orchard
our favorite song: "Fever Dream"
based in: Goteburg, Sweden
Today, Swedish singer Sarah Klang has released her third studio album "Virgo", following its predecessors „Love the Milkey Way“ and „Creamy Blue". The album captivates listeners with a mixture of great melodies, of unique soundscapes that make their way into our ears and are there to stay for a good while. It's worth it though because with the sound of this album in our heads, feels a good deal better. We are very grateful for this wonderful piece of music, and also for the fact that the artist took a considerable amount of time to talk to us about her new music, women empowerment, and her vision of a better future.
In her still rather young career, Sarah Klang can already look back on great successes. It is the modesty of the up-and-coming artist from Sweden that makes her so incredibly likeable, although her debut album "Love In The Milky Way" (2018) topped the charts in her home country and won the award for Best Album at the Swedish Grammys together with its follow-up "Creamy Blue" (2019). On top of that, it was also nominated at the Grammys in the 'Best Album' and 'Best Alternative Pop' categories, and the IMPALA Awards for 'European Album of the Year'. Furthermore, her entertaining live shows sold out several times and she completed various arena shows as support for FIRST AID KIT.
Sarah's music makes for an unmistakable mix of the classic structures of the pop of the 60s and 70s, old-fashioned ballads, American-influenced guitars, and the lush colors of country-pop. This unique sonic mix makes for a large amount of magic found on "Virgo". The songs sound full of melancholic hope that we all carry within us after a year of living through a global pandemic, coupled with the hope of a better future. But what is "Virgo" about? "It has a lot more hope than my previous music, even though it is very melancholic. It is about me getting older, age has made me a lot more into a positive person, I was kind of negative and more depressed in my early twenties.", Sarah explains us.
If you ask Sarah about her vision, her view of the future is rather uncertain and quite modest. What she wishes for most is that she can continue on with her music. Music really is her passion. In the meantime, however, she is also thinking about the future family that she wants to travel the world with. "The pandemic made me realize that I have a career here in Sweden and a bit in Europe, before that I was just thinking if I don't make it now, like in the US, I have failed. But now I have this consciousness that I do have a career especially when I think about the upcoming summer with first gigs in beautiful locations here in Sweden.", Sarah tells us. It is this modesty that makes this great artist so incredibly likable and her honesty and openness, which we find incorporated into heaps of wonderful sounds also on her latest album.
Another unique aspect of Virgo's overall thematic universe was that its conception was not largely affected by the pandemic, because Sarah had already written the lyrics before the pandemic hit. "When we were in the studio and when we were writing, things really felt normal, because you go into a little bubble.", Sarah says.
Another aspect making the current artistic work of Sarah Klang so unique is the world of wonderful music videos she created in collaboration with photographer Frederika Erikkson. Before working with Sarah, Frederika had worked as an illustrator and photographer. The videos she created for Sarah Klang are the first music videos she ever made. It is exactly this unbiasedness towards a new creative genre that makes the videos for "Canyon" and "Fever Dream", which Frederika has directed so far, so unique. It's the unconventional look that emerges from colorful picture-in-picture sequences reminiscent of the 80s and surprises to the end with new unexpected visual worlds that makes us want to watch the videos again and again. By the way, Frederika also took all the pictures you can see in this article.
All in all, Sarah Klang has triumphantly succeeded with "Virgo". She created a very listenable album full of delight and feminine energy, captivating listeners with its hopeful melancholy and delivering the perfect soundtrack to one of those melancholic windy spring days, which fill us all great anticipation of a warm and joyful summer full of music, freedom, and love.
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