Drakkar Nowhere capture the wind in their sails with a sound that’s boundless, expansive and, perhaps, guided only by the light of the sun and stars.
That Drakkar Nowhere ended up somewhere at all is itself more a result of circumstance than careful course-charting. The history of the album traces back to the summer of 2012, when two members of the New York-based Phenomenal Handclap Band (bandleader/keyboardist/producer Daniel Collás and vocalist/guitarist Morgan Phalen) found themselves creating new music in the kitchen of a rented apartment in Stockholm, Sweden. Their new project caught the ears of nearby musicians, including members of Dungen and The Amazing, and before long, this extended family of international musicians were recording the songs that would firmly put them on the path to nowhere – Drakkar Nowhere, that is of course.
It would be a bit much to propose that the album’s origin in a Stockholm kitchen reveals an “everything but the kitchen sink” approach to the music made by Drakkar Nowhere. In fact, the true revelation of the album is that such happenstance can result in an album that sounds so fully realized, so utterly complete – as if by setting no course, by rejecting no ideas, Drakkar Nowhere arrive at a destination of their own creation.
Both Collás and Phalen took inspiration from their Swedish surroundings – in particular, the enchanted forests that surround the neighborhoods of Bagarmossen and Midsommarkransen. And given the talents and histories of the collaborating musicians, it’s no surprise that the ever-evolving shadow of what we might broadly call Swedish psychedelica should perfume the proceedings as well. What is surprising – and what makes the Drakkar Nowhere album one that benefits from repeat listens – is how unobtrusive those influences are on the album’s ultimate sound. Drakkar Nowhere present a combination of influences – cosmic jazz, syrupy soul and mutated prog among them – in such an effortless manner that they don’t really feel like “influences” at all. As a result, Drakkar Nowhere have built an album that may have listeners ears recalling the crystalline harmonies of the Brothers Gibb more often than it does Träd, Gräs and Stenar.
No destination, no influences – just nowhere. And in the hands of Drakkar Nowhere. it’s clearly the place to be.
The Fat Angel Sings 