Solitär from Stockholm, Sweden is the solo project by Mikael Tuominen, a multi-instrumentalist known from bands like Kungens Män and Automatism, who was born in Sweden in 1973 by Finnish parents.
Mikael Tuominen been working within a large spectrum of music over the years, ranging from doom metal to avant garde free improvisation to music for film to indie rock.
The new, and third single from debut albm “Bus Driver Immigrant Mechanic” is called “Ship of Excitement.”
Mikael comments: “This is my favorite song on the album. Musically I wanted to press the same buttons that The Cure’s Disintegration does for me, but there’s also some kind of Curtis Mayfield thing going on in the chorus, even though it doesn’t really sound like that. The lyrics are a glimpse of my feelings about the space in time I shared with my very close cousin when we grew up. As life goes on, it ends too early for some of us.“
Watch the official music video through the YouTube player below.
Solitär has a unique take on mellow Indie Rock. The first release on Tonzonen Records titled “Bus Driver Immigrant Mechanic” is often laid back and fragile, but there’s a bass driven heaviness cooking underneath with a clear impact of Psych and Shoegaze. The music travels freely through the centuries, hinting at soundscapes from the late sixties up until today without losing its focus – there is a story to be told. The lyrics deal with death, time travel, family and old ghosts, but also touch upon issues like class and the struggle of belonging in the world.
Mikael Tuominen on the new album: “These are definitely the most personal or even private songs I have ever written. It’s a bit scary to release them for anyone to hear, but I think the topics are quite universal seen through my lens. We all have to cope with the loss of loved ones, time passing, aging and all of that heavy stuff. I do want to stress though, that this is a very positive album for me. I used music and the creation of these songs to really dive deep into some issues I needed to process, and it felt so great to come out with this result on the other side.“
Bus Driver Immigrant Mechanic will be out November 18, 2022 on Tonzonen Records, pre-order it here: https://www.tonzonen.de/shop/
Tracklist:
- Electric Sea
- Ship of Excitement
- Concrete Spaceship
- The Price
- Bus Driver
- Spegel Spegel
- It Rains
- A Flash in a Glass Jar
- Brus