NEW DISCOVERY:
JOSEFIN ÖHRN + THE LIBERATION
psychedelic rock / shoegaze / electronic
Admittedly, to report about this band in the category of new discoveries is a bit embarrassing. Where did they suddenly come from, you think to yourself. And why have I never heard of them before? But while listening to their latest album Sacred Dreams, for example, the astonishment gives way to the anticipation to share this new discovery with you anyway…
JOSEFIN ÖHRN grew up with rock music. Pink Floyd, David Bowie and Neil Young were listened to at home. Nevertheless, she initially studied at art college with the intention of doing “something visual” later on. However, while working in a record shop, the Swedish-born artist felt the desire to make her own music and began writing songs. She was promptly introduced to the musician and producer Fredrik Joelson, with whom she worked on her first songs and who would later be responsible for the production of her albums.
The aforementioned influences can be clearly heard, but psychedelic, stoner rock, space rock, krautrock and electronic music are even more noticeable… the singer/songwriter calls the end result “Psychedelic Spacegaze”.
Her dream of being a professional musician really takes shape when she meets the guys from her backing band THE LIBERATION. Her debut EP Diamond Waves is then released in 2014 and immediately hits home: Josefin Öhrn + The Liberation are nominated for the Swedish Grammy and perform at the renowned Roskilde Festival.
Motivated and inspired by their first success, the band went back into the studio to record their debut album Horse Dance, which was released in 2015 and with which the band also succeeded in attracting international attention. And already in the following year, the band followed up with their next longplayer: Mirage, which was mostly written and recorded while on tour and released in 2016 and -despite the short time span between the albums- shows a clear further development. Even more than the previous releases, it is characterised by psychedelic influences, hypnotic reverbs and even experimental passages with tribal influences and noise carpets. The following album Sacred Dreams from 2019 proves once again that Josefin Öhrn + The Liberation, who are now based in London, absolutely cannot be pigeonholed, always providing surprises between mass-compatible pop, seasoned psych-rock and diverse experimentations, while still maintaining their quality and delivering a solid sound.
After this rapid development in the recent past, it would be exciting to see what is still to come from Josefin Öhrn + The Liberation after the current break. Unfortunately, the band’s website and Facebook page have been deleted – let’s hope that this doesn’t mean the end of the formation and that we’ve discovered them only “posthum”… but how do we use to say? Better late than never.
JOSEFIN ÖHRN + THE LIBERATION’s LINKS:
BANDCAMP
INSTAGRAM
TWITTER
SOUNDCLOUD
SPOTIFY
