JOHN ALEXANDER ERICSON


UK DEBUT ALBUM RELEASE - ‘SONGS FROM THE WHITE SEA’


October 12th, 2009


John Alexander Ericson’s remarkable Uk debut album marks the culmination of a number of personal journeys, from his native Sweden via Berlin to London where he now lives and from a background in electronica, via rock with his brother’s band Alberta Cross, to a very personal blend of songwriting that draws on all these experiences.


Taking a distinctly European approach to his craft, which both recalls and updates influences such as P.J.Harvey, Jacques Brel andDavid Bowie and Brian Eno’s collaborations it’s appropriate that Berlin forms such a major part of the album’s artistic and personal geography.


Many of the songs were written during his stay in the city (including standout tracks ‘Mary Song’ and ‘Let It All Come’) where Alex had his studio in Weissensee (from Der Weisse See or The White Sea hence the album’s title). The cover art also pays homage in being a photograph of the city taken from the Warschauer Brücke / Warsaw Bridge which also gives Alex’s label ‘Warsaw Recordings’ its name.


Following his move to London and the composition of songs such as ‘Over The Darkness And Over The City’ and ‘Blinded By Highways’ Alex took the decision to write and produce the album himself in the very different, but still traditionally rock’n’roll location of a cottage deep in the isolated Welsh countryside near Porthmadog.


Using just a laptop, a mic, a piano and an old Moog synth, the intimacy that these surroundings delivered come through in the ethereal feel of tracks such as ‘Midnight Warriors’ which shimmers and tugs at the mind, the heart and the soul.
Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.