In their 1998 release schedule Stockholm Records states that the swedish synthpop band Vacuum (with Alexander Bard from Army of Lovers) will release their follow-up to the 1997 debut in March. A first single will show up in February, called "Tonnes of Attraction". Stockholm will also release the follow-up to the techno duo Antiloop's debut later this year.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds' best of-album and video (with a different track-listing than the album) is postponed to May 11.

The concert/festival organizer Stroke have found a new venue for concerts with a capacity of around 800 people at Södermalm in Stockholm. They plan a festival in the beginning of the summer and Stockholm Synth Festival 1998 in the autumn. Stroke Records will license the new Orange Sector album "Masquerade" and release albums with DAF.DOS (live from Stockholm Synth Festival), Restricted Area ("Realtime") and the debut single of Lorelei De Lux. Their album with the preliminary title "Tigerkött" is planned for May. As for now the other records are scheduled for a March release.

EnCounter.

The final program of the Uppsala festival More Than a Party is set: Cat Rapes Dog, EnCounter, Project X, Kiethevez and Children Within. The festival will take place on February 14. Info: Det Svarta Staketet.

The swedish band The April Tears have now finally told us some of their future plans. For a long time lots of rumours have been floating around about almost everything, but now we don't want to talk about rumours - here's the facts.
The band is signed to Per Gessle's publishing company Jimmy Fun and a major swedish record company (which is not official yet). The follow-up to the successful 1995 debut "Strange Paradise" (which earned ten out of ten in Release) is still named "Eye's Cold Kisses" and will probably be released after the summer together with a single. But first there will be a single, hopefully in March, and some concerts.
"Eye's Cold Kisses" has been recorded in the legendary Puk Studio in the middle of nowhere in Jylland, Denmark. The studio i known for Depeche Mode's visits during recordings of "Music for the Masses" and "Violator". It was also in these parts the cool "Never Let Me Down Again"-video was recorded.
The new April Tears-album have also been recorded and mixed in Gothenburg (Music-a-Matic) and Stockholm (Mono Music). It is produced by Mikael Ilbert with assistance from Charlie Storm, both connected with Blue For Two. The Blue for Two-frontman Freddie Wadling sings the duet "Hipshooter" together with April Tears' vocalist Sara Gunnarsson. Another guest appearance is from the singer of Mesh on the track "Hardcoming". Both are strong songs and are likely to be released as singles, as well as "Heart Shut Down" in a new version (the track can be found on the compilation "Electromagnetic") and maybe one more track, which make the sum of four singles connected with the album.
- Two more songs will shortly be recorded to the album, and one is the ironic "Clone Elvis", says Andreas Jismark from the band but he assures that the album is serious.
- I think the recording costs is something like one million swedish crowns already, he continues. So it better be succesful. But the production has really made great things with our music this time. It is a huge difference to what we have done before - back then we didn't bother with outside producer and such.
The rest of the album songs were completed and mixed back in August. And how does the new stuff sound? Well, we have listned to some of the songs and they are more professional, more electronic, and very impressive...
- It sounds pretty pathetic these days, but the sound is definetly heavier. Our first EP was simple, but perfectionistic and we didn't really know what we were doing back then, says Andreas. On the album "Strange Paradise" we did the complete opposite and we made things quite chaotic. Now our sound is more compact, more homogenic and simply much better in every aspect.
Doesn't it trouble you that the tracks were old already when you recorded them last summer? And now you have to wait one year for the album to be released.
- Yes, but we are so pleased with the songs that we are not going to get tired of them. And this is how a major company works and we want everything to run smoothly this time. We've had our dose of problems, so we are prepared to wait if that is what it takes. This is a big step with lots of preparations. For example the album will be released in some other countries, such as Japan, and there will of course be a tour next year.
After some turbulence the complete line-up of the band is, except for Andreas and Sara, Christian Berg, Thorbjörn Söderman and Jimmy Monell. Andreas has fled from Stockholm to their old home town Tranås, but the rest of the band still lives in Stockholm.
The April Tears did record almost a complete album together with Mesh, in Bristol, England 1996, but the recordings were thrown aside in the last minute. One reason was that the band wasn't completely satisfied with the result.
In December 1996 the band was bought over from their old record company Memento Materia to Jimmy Fun and they played live at the premier night of Jimmy Fun's music club in Stockholm together with Saft. Even though some problems did occur with their old record company, there are not any hard feelings between the band and the company. Memento Materia might re-release "Strange Paradise" in a different format later on, but no definite plans are made at the moment.
Only fragments from the Bristol-sessions are used in the new recordnings where a handful of the songs from that era have survived. Andreas says that something - a track - or a remix made by Mesh - might show up as extra tracks on singles, but nowadays there are obviously many people who shall have their say about April Tears whereabouts.