In addition to co-running the Sincerely Yours label and his days as one-half of the electronica duo The Tough Alliance, Swedish musician Eric Berglund also records as ceo. In June 2010, Berglund released his debut album as ceo, White Magic, a poignant, melodic collection of electro-pop inspired in equal parts by Phoenix and Depeche Mode. On February 4th, Berglund returns with ceo’s sophomore effort, WONDERLAND, via Modular Recordings.
The eight-track effort was produced by Berglund in association with Dan Lissvik (Young Galaxy, Taken by Trees) and Sincerely Yours signee Kendal Johansson. In a open letter giant run-on sentence, Berglund described his intentions:
If this don’t make you hate me and love yourself, then hate us both, then love me and hate yourself and then the other way around and then the other way again and again until your head spins so much you feel like hopping between neon glowing islands on a quad bike while being attacked by whirlwinds of shurikens too sharp to even hurt you mixed with flying kisses from fairy cheerleaders and all of sudden you hear the sound of laser you know and everything is white for like two seconds with a black and purple strobe in it and then you wake up in a cottage in a sweet bright daze until you start thinking and then all your past crushes and other phantoms slides up from everywhere singing their siren songs and your whole life flashes before not only your eyes but your whole being until you just can’t take it anymore and everything around you disintegrates and you find yourself in a void, on that quad bike again, just ridin’, feeling everything at once, without resistance, you’re doing something wrong
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or die tryingceo is you and you are me and i am ceo aka white panther aka ultra messiah aka mr yeah aka eric aka life aka you
in eternity
Our first taste of the album comes with the lead single/opening track, “WHOREHOUSE”. Despite the potentially risque implications of the title, the end result is more sugary sweet than overtly sexual. While there’s talk of being “stuck inside a whorehouse”, Berglund manages to forge a sweet-natured and shimmery dance-pop anthem, with big, chunky drum machines, lush flourishes of lasery synths, wacky fluctuations of pitch, and vocals brimming with a pronounced playfulness. Listen in below. (And to our Swedish friends: are brothels something else entirely in your country?)
WONDERLAND Tracklist:
01. WHOREHOUSE
02. HARAKIRI
03. MIRAGE
04. IN A BUBBLE ON A STREAM
05. WONDERLAND
06. jUjU
07. ULTRAKAOS
08. OMG