Wildbirds & Peacedrums

Wildbirds & Peacedrums: The Snake [CD]

Wildbirds & Peacedrums: Iris [Vinyl LP]

Wildbirds & Peacedrums: Rhythm [Vinyl LP + CD]

Debut album from Swedish duo Wildbirds & Peacedrums - singer Mariam Mariam Wallentin and drummer Andreas Werliin. On Heartcore they forged an extraordinary hybrid of spiritual pop, primal blues and ecstatic soul music. Seesawing between pagan rhythms and sparse, bewitching ballads, this self-produced record is a declaration of intent: immediate, exhilarating, and just plain new.

Debut album from Swedish duo Wildbirds & Peacedrums - singer Mariam Mariam Wallentin and drummer Andreas Werliin. On Heartcore they forged an extraordinary hybrid of spiritual pop, primal blues and ecstatic soul music. Seesawing between pagan rhythms and sparse, bewitching ballads, this self-produced record is a declaration of intent: immediate, exhilarating, and just plain new.

Rivers is the mesmerising third album by Sweden's Wildbirds & Peacedrums, combining the two limited edition vinyl only 12" EPs, Retina and Iris, which were released in May and June 2010 respectively. Characteristically, Wildbirds emphasise instinct, emotional rawness and purity of expression over perfection. The whole album was recorded and mixed in Reykjavík in a single week, and retains an intentionally spontaneous, live feel. A new sense of restraint and control is apparent, compared to Wildbirds' previous albums (2008's Heartcore and 2009's The Snake) and their blistering live shows, consciously bringing Mariam Wallentin's lyrical concerns into clearer focus. While the two EPs are sonically quite distinct, they complement each other with unifying themes of reflection, light and water. Heard in the context of the album, the new songs are revealed as an extraordinary body of work.

Wildbirds & Peacedrums' fourth studio album finds them lean, hungry and defiant. In stripping back they have discovered an unblinking directness, a taut muscularity honed from years of intensive live performance. Wildbirds & Peacedrums have turned the screw. Rhythm is the work of husband and wife duo Mariam Wallentin and Andreas Werliin. It is their unflinching vision. No other ears. No other fingerprints. Written, recorded and produced by the pair in their Stockholm studio. There is an unshakeable confidence in its execution, which could only be achieved by working in this way. Proof that intuitive and primal interplay between voice and drums still has the power to leave you breathless. "Sound-wise we wanted it to feel like a live experience," Andreas explains. "Almost every song is one take. We recorded standing in the same room, no screens or isolation, looking each other in the eyes."