Songs For Lap Steel And Harmonium is the new solo album from Berlin-based Swedish lap steel player, singer and songwriter Fredrik Kinbom (Sarah Blasko, Alberta Cross, Gemma Ray, Gurrumul). It will be released by Sotones Records on 9 November 2018.

Since his acclaimed last solo effort Oil (Capstan Records, 2014), Fredrik Kinbom has been busy with other projects – touring extensively with Gemma Ray, Moulettes, Alberta Cross and Ned Collette, as well as releasing two albums with his side project Kinbom & Kessner (one of which featured a guest appearance by none other than James Williamson of Iggy & The Stooges). In the summer of 2017, he felt the time was ripe to concentrate on a new collection of solo songs based around the lap steel guitar, this time around in combination with another rare and evocative instrument – the harmonium. He says about the new album:

“With Songs for Lap Steel and Harmonium I set out to write and record an album where the only instruments accompanying my voice are the lap steel guitar (acoustic and electric) and the harmonium, or pump organ. Both are instruments dear to my heart, and both are sort of on the garbage dump of history (as their respective heydays are long gone). But my music does not look to the past. Nor does it interest me to play the kind of music these instruments are mainly associated with, but rather to tap into their rich textures and combined expressive potential and create my own kind of soundscapes and songs.”

Fredrik spent eight intensive months in his Berlin studio, surrounded by an array of lap steel guitars and three vintage harmoniums (the oldest being more than 110 years old, and the “newest” a US Army field organ from WWII), writing, exploring and recording. The result is a beautiful, cohesive piece of work and a highly original artistic statement.

Photo: Darja Štravs Tisu