Frida Sundemo

Flashbacks & Futures: a record inspired by space, exploring the vast spaces between despondent synth-pop classics and all the more orchestral elements; a constellation of songs as readily identifiable as any entry-level asterism, yet as compelling as the most complex… Having emerged understated, but with a spellbinding case to state, from the stirring mists of such icy soundscapes as Snow and Home – from her critically acclaimed 2013 EP, Indigo – Gothenburg’s Frida Sundemo now looks skyward, with all things celestial totally influential. Her attentions shifting from the glacial to the galactic therefore, her international début album – Flashbacks & Futures, released late October via leading Scandinavian record label Cosmos Music – never loses sight of her idiosyncratic electro-pop geneses, yet strides forward with unswerving purpose, with the outcome proving invariably accomplished. Building upon the skyscraping grandeur of previously released singles We Are Dreamers and It’s OK, Sundemo imagines the album being “a little like a soundtrack to a sci-fi movie,” gliding lissome between the spare, dewy production of coruscating forthcoming single Gold and the pulsating undulations of smash hit-elect Stay Young, and beyond, with those most sparse pieces – the likes of Circles and Keep An Eye On Me – among its most startling. Many, if not most, of these songs may be underpinned by quintessentially Scandinavian, glistening synths, yet all the more scintillating time after time is Sundemo’s ability to so nimbly commingle her knack for incontestably anthemic melodies with the multi-instrumentalist’s orchestral predilections, interwoven with a rare productional dexterity to complete a seamlessly resplendent patchwork of a record. Thus from the opening Pet Shop Boyish title track right through to the teary, fearful Astronaut, Flashbacks & Futures is where Hans Zimmer meets Boys Noize; a record that is, perhaps improbably, inspired by Chopin and Para One in equal measure. And, in imbuing these intensely electronic tracks with the orchestral elements Sundemo does, she breathes human beauty into truly breathtaking compositions, the ice thawing – like a heart shape rubbed into moist condensation on, say, a Swedish window – to reveal a palpitating, red-blooded brilliance rushing all the way through her veins. Avowing to “stay young at heart,” there remains a starry-eyed innocence to them still, although the master compositional maturity on display ensures this never overpowers nor underwhelms, with the weightless Circles evidencing a self-awareness rarely sighted in pop’s atmosphere. “I never wanted things to fall apart/ Now I find myself somewhere far/ Far away from where I started/ Circles, take me back/ To something I know” she’ll conclude, forever the ingénue, but it’s such bold leaps into the proverbial unknown as this that will, soon enough, start to set Frida apart; to set her free, even. And so, while it would be wise to keep an eye on Sundemo, more important is to keep both ears finely tuned in to these otherworldly frequencies" www.fridasundemo.com