Monday, July 02, 2012

Goodbye (for now) September...hello Petra Marklund!

Today brought some surprising but very welcoming news.  Over the last few years, September has been one of my favourite Swedish pop/dance acts.  Today in an interview with Dagens Nyheter http://www.dn.se/kultur-noje/musik/petra-marklund-sa-mycket-svartare the singer revealed a complete change of sound - and artist name - for her forthcoming album which will be released in the autumn.  The main change is that, for the moment, she has dropped her artist-name September and will release the album  under her own name, Petra Marklund.  The other big change is that the album will be in her native language and out goes the familiar dance-pop style of recent years.

One of her main musical collaborators on the album is none other than Kent's brilliant Joakim Berg.  If anyone had suggested a few years ago that these two artists from two very different musical worlds would have been working together I wouldn't have believed it.  But that, perhaps, says more about the open-minded nature of Swedish music.  Artists are willing to innovate, take risks, to try a new sound, to discover and embrace unlikely musical collaborations.  That takes true talent, and I'm delighted to see Petra take this exciting new step in her career.

And even more exciting news is that none other than Salem Al Fakir will be guesting on one of the tracks on the new album.  I'm sure it will be fantastic.

Good luck with the new album, Petra - I can't wait to hear it :)

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