The Swedish synthpop, industrial and alternative electronic label Progress Productions has been around for 10 years now. It’s grown into what must be the biggest Scandinavian label for these genres and most of the output with artists such as Necro Facility, Henric de la Cour, Kite and Spark has received high praise from both the record buyers and the music press such as Release. Progress has stayed true to its objectives and remained on its path for all this years, so we caught up with founder and label boss Torny Gottberg to commemorate the anniversary. [more...]

Fredrik “Schlatta” Wik brought his camera and shot Kraftwerk when they performed in Dalhalla – a spectacular amphitheatre located in a former limestone quarry near Rättvik in Sweden. [more...]

By: Sebastian Hess & Henrik Wittgren (Organizers of Electronic Summer & Winter festivals in Gothenburg)

In the aftermath of Alt-Fest we wanted to share our thoughts about organizing events and festivals. Especially how high-risk festivals without proper funding jeopardize every other event and festival in the scene. [more...]

It’s been way too long since the world was blessed with a Daily Planet album. The synthpop duo’s excellent debut album “The Tide” came out as far back as in 1996 and after that the Johan Baeckström and Jarmo Ollila ventured off to other projects like Jarmo’s Mr Jones Machine.

This year we finally got first the single “Trust/Fragile” and then the new album “Two”, so I contacted them to find out more about what has happened and what the future holds. They reveal that they are already working on a new album. [more...]

Release Magazine guest writer Sebastian Hess went to the Rewind Festival in Henley outside London to revel in 80:s pop music and to have a chat with icon Jimmy Somerville. Read about the meeting with Jimmy in an upcoming article.

Rewind Festival has become a big part of the UK festival Summer with 3 huge events attracting over 100 000 people in total. The concept is full on 80:s with bright colours all over and artists who will bring back memories of your youth in a flash. The line-up this year included a lot of artists with their roots in electronic music like Marc Almond, Holly Johnson, A Flock of Seagulls, Thompson Twins (well, Tom Bailey from Thompson Twins at least.) and Jimmy Somerville.

Sebastian put on one pink glove and dove in. [more...]

Sebastian Hess met up with icon Jimmy Somerville backstage at the Rewind Festival in Henley outside London. Jimmy Somerville first became famous in Bronski Beat in the early 80:s, then he went on to start The Communards and has also released several solo albums. In early 2015 his new disco album will be released. [more...]

A gallery by Fredrik Wik from the concerts with EBM and electronica duo Fixmer/McCarthy and local EBM act Ekobrottsmyndigheten at Musikens Hus in Gothenburg on September 11 2014. [more...]

The gigantic black celebration that is Amphi Festival in Cologne is one of the most impressive and popular festivals for our music scene – and I am still excited after this year’s Amphi. Here is a long interview with the organizers about many interesting matters, for instance the state of the scene, the audience, why Amphi moves to a new festival ground, the lack of newcomers and what happened at this year’s fest. [more...]

Release’s Fredrik Wik has published a gallery with photos from the DAF concert during the Industrinatt event in the old Munksjö factory in Jönköping on September 27. [more...]

Linea Aspera and Schwefelgelb were 2 of the most interesting electronic acts to emerge during the last years before they called it quits. Linea Aspera, that played a mix of synthpop and darkwave, with very strong lyrics, was just on the verge of a bigger break when they split up. Schwefelgelb on the other hand had a more punkish attityde, mixed with elements of NDW and EBM. Zoè Zanias and Sid Lamar were vocalists in each of these bands and about 2 years ago decided to start Keluar in Germany. [more...]