lifeiscarbon®

Lots Of Swedish Design

Elektra is an interesting new range of domestic appliances designed by Hanna Ljungström of the Swedish design agency LOTS. Partly developed as a way to provide a vision of the future for the Swedish glass industry, LOTS also wanted to show how it was possible to turn the cooking process into a sensual experience that could provide enjoyment everyday.

Three concepts have so far been developed; a Kettle, a Toaster and a Moka Brewer. Made out of a combination of glass, black thermoplastic and gold, the appliances have been developed in collaboration with the Swedish glass manufacturer Orrefors Kosta Boda. You can see the Elektra collection for yourself at the Röhss Museum in Göteborg until June 3 2007. Our friend David Carlson of The David Report has written an interesting piece about the new designs and explains:

“Hanna Ljungström found a gap in the market concerning domestic appliances between retro design on one side and minimalism on the other. With the Elektra collection Hanna aimed to develop a series of products that don´t have to be hidden away in a cabinet. The bold character of the new designs is inspired by the catwalks of the grand fashion brands. The handmade organic thermo plastic tops make a nice contrast to the controlled classic relief of the glass. By allowing the tops to be handmade Hanna has created an interesting meeting between industry and craft.”

Read more about LOTS and see a selection of their designs below:

Hotel Helsinki

Earlier this year, a group of designers from the University of Art and Design Helsinki (UIAH) created an interesting exhibition based on their exploration of the experience of staying in hotels. Sadly it’s too late to catch the Helsinki Hotel show, which was first exhibited at That´s Design at Superstudio as part of the Milan Design Week and then at the Design Museum in Helsinki, but the designs are still well worth seeing (take a look below).

The international group of 16 design students (part of the Masters of Arts program at UIAH, tutored by Professor Timo Salli and the designer Elina Aalto) transformed their views of contemporary hotel staying into a collection of thought-provoking objects.

carbonarts™: Lars Tunbjörk

Lars Tunbjörk is one of Sweden’s most respected photographers. His images have been widely exhibited internationally and are published regularly in magazines around the world through the Paris picture agency VU and in monographs. Born 1956 in Borås on the west coast of Sweden, Lars Tunbjörk now lives and works in Stockholm. His photography predominantly captures the humor and melancholy of people in offices, homes and small towns of Sweden.

Like Martin Parr in Britain or William Eggleston in Memphis, Lars Tunbjörk’s pictures capture a vernacular which whilst being very local still seem to resonate beyond its borders. 'There are lots of Swedish national symbols and I didn't think foreigners would understand them. But at the ICP exhibition in America I was quite surprised that the visitors got it. People who grew up in the smaller towns in the Midwest grasped the meaning of it, which was quite amazing. I thought maybe it was because Sweden has become so Americanized, but it wasn't that - they were picking up on the small town atmosphere.'

While many artists of his generation have tackled the same subject matter, Tunbjörk has managed to mix humor and intelligent observation with an almost apocalyptic eye. See a small selection of his work below and in the fourth in our series of carbonarts™ galleries.

Tactile Sensory Overload

Swedish designer Sandra Backlund recently won the top prize at the Hyeres Festival of Fashion and Photography, France’s most prestigious award for emerging young designers. The designer, whose collection entitled Ink Blot Test featured mini dresses with petal like tops, took home a prize of 15,000 Euros and free exhibition space at two key ready-to-wear trade salons, Tranoi in Paris and Ideal in Berlin. 


Looking at Sandra Backlund’s collections nearly always induces a sense of tactile sensory overload. Completely handmade, her designs take knitting to a new level by transforming strands of yarn into wearable sci-fi sculptures. Each garment is created from many small pieces that are combined together to form dramatic sweaters, dresses, shrugs and leggings. Enormous cable knits, pompoms and crochet weavings embellish her stunning designs. Take a look below at a selection of images from her first five collections:

Swedish Emo Pop

For over a decade the Swedish singer-songwriter Karl Larsson has been creating everything from frustrated emotional hardcore ballads to well-produced pop songs, without ever being distracted by current trends or passing fads. His band, the Last Days of April has been a reliable rock in the stormy waters of pop culture, and the solid fan base around the world is testament to the band’s musical commitment.

Their latest album, Might As Well Live (released in February 2007) fuses Larsson’s long-evolved melodic craftsmanship and emotionally charged lyrics with thick rock guitars. Recorded at the Gröndahl studio in November 2006 with help from the Grammy Award winning producer Pelle Gunnerfeldt (whose previous work includes The Hives and Sahara Hotnights), the album has the word airplay written all over it. Continue reading, take a listen and judge for yourself.

Norwegian Photo Pioneer

Following hot on the heels of the superb exhibition of Tom Sandberg's photographs at PS1, an exhibition of work by another notable Norwegian photographer is about to open in New York. The largest exhibition of works by Norwegian photographer John Olav Riise (1885-1978) outside of Norway will be on view at Scandinavia House from 12 June onwards. Critically acclaimed in France and a major influence during his lifetime, Riise holds a unique position on the international art scene and within photographic history.

While his Norwegian colleagues were inspired by English and German photography, Riise was one of the few to look to France. From the quiet life of a small rural community on the west coast of Norway, he came to exhibit annually at The International Salon of Photography in Paris together with well known photographers such as Robert Demachy and Frantisek Drtikol at a time when Man Ray, Andre Masson, Max Ernst, and others were exhibiting early Surrealist works.

New Monograph Magazine

If you’re a fan of the style of photography that we often feature on lifeiscarbon®, by the likes of photographers such as Sannah Kvist and Emilie Björk for example, then you’ll love Swarta, a new magazine from Sweden. Not content to be born quietly, their first issue has just been launched with not just one, but two parties – the first in Stockholm and the second in Paris.

The basic premise of the magazine is for invited artists (there are twelve contributing artists in the first issue) to interpret a chosen subject or theme through new work specifically made for the publication. Contributors to Swarta’s first issue include Trinidad Carrillo, Anna Clarén, JH Engström, Thobias Fäldt, Niclas Holmström, Helga Härenstam, Stefan Höglund, Emilia Bergmark-Jiménez, Klara Källström, Mårten Lange, Jesper Ulvelius and our friends Marianna Mørkøre and Maria Arnell (who collaborate together under the name Marmar). Through the medium of photography, the artists have explored the tricky question ‘what is fashion imagery?’

Within the stark and minimalistic layout of Swarta, you'll find endless pages of stunning photography with many examples of New Scandinavian Realism and plenty of images loaded with Nordic Angst. All in all, more of a limited edition monograph than a magazine and bound to become a collector’s item. See below for a preview:

Mud, Grass and Permafrost

Designed in Norway, manufactured in Sweden, wool from New Zealand but inspired by a common image of rural America, the John Deere tractor. We love the simplicity of the idea behind the new Stories range of rugs by Permafrost, the Norwegian industrial design agency. Currently the Stories range includes John Deere Mud (in brown) and John Deere Grass (in green) and Silence (in white).

Based in Oslo, Permafrost was established in 1999 by Eivind Halseth, Oskar Johansen, Tore Vinje Brustad and Andreas Murray, five partners who all had a background in industrial design and architecture. These days, Permafrost’s services range from product and interior design to brand identity and illustration. Take a look below at some of their innovative designs:

Funky Danish Kids

Despite the fact that H&M has become the standard everyday clothing of most Scandinavian children, it’s good to know that more interesting clothing can be had from wonderful brands like Polarn O.Pyret of Sweden and our new favorites, Molo of Denmark.

Clearly it’s children that take center stage in Molo’s design universe. The company state that their mission is quite simply to make the world’s most fantastic clothes for kids (without worrying too much about what their parents think but instead about what children want to wear). That said, many Scandinavian parents appreciate Molo’s focus on practical and functional children’s wear.

As well as loving their clothing, we applaud Molo’s philosophy that when children are free to express their creativity through their clothing, they gain self-esteem and confidence. Clothes should open a world of possibilities for a child, and not limit them. We couldn't agree more. Take a look below at a selection of their designs:

Datarock Reaches USA

Despite the fact that the Norwegian duo Datarock, have released three EPs and an album since they formed in 2000, the US has had to wait until now to experience their unique sound (Beastie Boys meets Talking Heads) and highly distinctive stage performances.

Fredrik Saroea (Vocals, guitars, drums, keyboards) and Ketil Mosnes (Bass, programming, keyboards, backing vocals) from Bergen in Norway, describe their sound as "a mixture of musical styles" and list their major artistic influences as Devo, Talking Heads and the Happy Mondays.

Datarock’s debut album, Datarock Datarock, which was released in 2005 in 10 countries on the band's own label, YAP (Young Aspiring Professionals), is finally being released in the US on 12 June by Nettwerk. As if that isn’t good news enough, Fredrik and Ketil are also embarking on their first US tour, kicking off on 1 June in Philadelphia (see full details below). Continue reading to watch the video for Fa Fa Fa and to listen to Sex Me Up. Seriously difficult not to dance to, you’ll fall for them as much as we have.

Front For Design

Having admired their designs for years, it’s difficult to explain why we haven’t written about Front Design before now. Partly it’s to do with the fact that every time we start to write a profile about them they present another amazing design project. Partly it’s the fact that their projects are so necessarily complex and therefore difficult to fully present and explain. In truth, their projects are best experienced face to face and its difficult to do justice to them through text and images on a website. That said, we thought it high time that we attempted to write an introduction to one of the most interesting of the design teams working in Scandinavian today.

Front Design is a Stockholm based group of designers consisting of Sofia Lagerkvist, Charlotte von der Lancken, Anna Lindgren and Katja Sävström. Working as a team, in which all members are involved in the design process from initial discussions and ideas to the final product, Front’s products often communicate a story about the design process, about conventions within the product field or about the materials and techniques used. Take a look below at a selection of their recent designs:

Hunting High And Low

Hunting Lodge is a design-led store in Oslo selling exclusive designer products sourced from around the world. This relatively new store (it opened in March) has quickly become a lifeiscarbon® favorite and one of those stores that has to be visited at least once a week to check out new product arrivals. The focus of the store is on contemporary street-wear, but clothing is well complemented by a selection of books, toys, jewelery, accessories and original art works. Brands stocked include: +41, alife, Addict, Pegleg NYC, Staple, Trainer Spotter, Penfield, Hellz Bellz and Rogue Status.

Despite its location, the store is owned and run by two non-Scandinavians, Dafydd Jones and Mark James. Dafydd, originally from Wales, works as a music consultant and has a background in styling, music videos and fashion shoots. Mark is a London based creative director with a proven track record in designing clothing, prints, packaging and toys (CardBoy Series) as well as directing videos.

The store has been designed by Dafydd and Mark themselves with many of the fixtures being made as one off designs, including an exclusively designed Antler Shelving System and display cases rather cleverly made from plastic food pallets (see below for images of the store). The owners hope to make use of the store as an exhibition space in which they will showcase new and established artists.

Melancholic Dance Sounds

Not only two music posts in two days, but two music posts about two Danish bands. We’ll admit that sometimes we’re simply prompted to write about whatever is inspiring us that day or, as is the case here, whatever happens to being played most on our iTunes. Perhaps we’re wrong, but we’re operating under the assumption that our readers would want us to share with them any tracks that we just can’t stop listening to.

As has been the case with a number of the Scandinavian bands that we’ve written about recently, there’s precious little information to be found about The Holiday Show from Denmark. A surprsing fact given that many of their tracks have been at the top of numerous online playlists around the world and they’ve already built up a loyal following, not least due to their live performances.

The precious little that we can tell you is that The Holiday Show comprises of Casper Castello (Vocals/Guitar), Troels Hammer (Synths), Morten Sylvest (Bass) and Mads Rønbjerg (Drums). The band’s genre-coctail sound sound has been compared to The Flaming Lips, Vive La’Fete and early days Depeche Mode, although you’ll occasionally hear moments reminisent of the Beach Boys. More importantly, they somehow manage to create highly danceable though beautifully melancholic songs.

Take a listen below to the original and new mix versions of Snookerstar, The Holiday Show track that we just can’t stop listening to and then check out the band on MySpace to hear three additional tracks and watch a couple of videos of the band playing live.

Theraputic Sound of Tetris

Photos by Jean-Marc Luneau

Time to introduce another new musical discovery from Scandinavia - an interesting new band from Denmark that have literally only existed since the start of this year – and time for us to share a couple of new downloadable tracks with you. Tetris = Therapy is a electronica/post rock duo from the small town of Jelling near Vejle in Jutland, consisting of long-time musical collaborators Rune Thomsen and Kasper Husted.

The duo’s music is an unpredictable blend of everything from noisy shoegaze guitars over a grandiose post-rock sound to electronica and heavy electronic beats. The mixing of genres is what perhaps makes the duo stand out from a lot of the other bands that are emerging from Denmark at the moment. Rune and Kasper state that they’ve drawn inspiration from a number of different bands such as My Bloody Valentine, The Postal Service and Explosions in the Sky. To our ears, the duo’s songs often continue rising in intensity until creating huge walls of sound much akin to tracks by our all time favorites Sigur Rós. Take a listen to a couple of tracks below and judge for yourself.