There’s a Reason
When you travel around the world (and your own country) as much as Marcus Friman, Swedish singer/songwriter behind “Land of Trees”, the journey changes you in such a profound way that it starts becoming introspective at some point. Your past and inner struggles turn into landmarks that slowly but steadily transform themselves (and your very own being) every time you revisit them. On this single, the expedition took Friman to the rough lands of unresolved pain.
“There’s a Reason” was born as a result of this journey.
This silent distress that arises from an unanswered past seems to be all over the media nowadays, with the controversy about shows like “Thirteen Reasons Why” as its most recent example. But it’s also important to allow for alternative and perhaps more hopeful perspectives on the topic. “There’s a Reason” provides a reassuring and strengthening message to the listener, all without denying or diminishing the implications of such crude experiences.
Friman’s unassuming approach to indie folk feels like walking into a forest devoid of any material comforts beyond your own naked body. No bombastic production is needed to convey a powerful and straightforward message. In the style of artists like Stu Larsen, Ben Howard or Passenger, a modest, mostly acoustic arrangement that supports the sound poetry of the vocals is more than enough. A touch of other instruments, a viola in this case, is welcome once in a while though – with the exception of acts like The Velvet Underground, you don’t often hear a viola on music outside the classical world.
Follow Land of Trees in this free-spirited trip on his single release on November the 24th.
Cover art by: Albert Frykman
The indie-folk solo project makes an expedition into in-ner conflict and hope in “There’s a Reason”, his latest single