Fredrik Schlatta Wik
Albums
Susanne Sundfør: “10 Love Songs”
One of those unusual albums where I like everything: the music, vocals, lyrics, song order and artwork. A masterpiece.
Jean-Michel Jarre: “Electronica Part 1”
Guru Jarre travelled around the world to cooperate with other masterminds and delivered one of the strongest albums of the year. The Vince Clarke tracks being my favourites.
Grimes: “Art Angels”
Claire Boucher goes a bit more pop, but still edgy electronics. A very well made album.
Agent Side Grinder: “Alkimia”
Slightly more produced than previous efforts, but still quite true to their electronic origin. Their Joy Division bass lines and dry drums mixed with synth melodies are simply beautiful.
Karin Park: “Apocalypse Pop”
Karin explores the darker sides of her electropop – more depth and a bit more haunting.
Johan Baeckström: “Like Before”
Fifty percent of Daily Planet, one hundred percent happy synthpop. Mr Clarke smiles, so does Mrs Moyet.
Heart of Black Science: “Signal”
I have waited for this album for a while. “Icon” will always be in my top 10 songs list. More guitars (in a good way) and a more dramatic, cinematic feel. Lovely.
Conjure One: “Holoscenic”
Mastermind Rhys Fulber cooperates with several singers on this extremely well-produced collection of electronic pop songs intermixed with instrumental monuments. Best to date.
Dead When I Found Her: “All the Way Down”
Atmospheric, melodic industrial with movie samples, my colleague Johan Carlsson wrote. Of the best sort – I concur.
The Orb: “Moonbuilding 2703 AD”
The doctor is back. This was the main soundtrack at work for me 2015. Four tracks, 50+ minutes of ambient soundscapes.
Songs
Susanne Sundfør: “Delirious”
Almost all of the ten love songs is single material, but “Delirious” stands out.
Saft: “Om oss”
The surprise comeback of 2015. This is the second single they released and it sounds like it could have been released 18 years ago.
Chvrches: “Playing Dead”
I really like Chvrches and their new album is fantastic, I only wish that Lauren Mayberry would sing on all songs. For that reason I chose “Playing Dead”, which in my view is the strongest of the bunch, in my best songs list instead of having their album in the album list.
Minuit Machine: “Battles”
French duo Minuit Machine delivered this gem that I repeated over and over again for several days.
IAMX: “Happiness”
I didn’t enjoy everything on “Metanoia”, but “Happiness” is really a great tune.
Nattskiftet: “Aceton”
Yes, this Gothenburg quartet are friends of mine and I am thus biased, still this is a very nice song. Sung in Swedish and it has a simplistic early EBM feel. I honestly love it.
Kite: “Up for Life”
A slow, almost 9 minute long journey. Complete with a child choir and fantastic lyrics.
Live artists
Susanne Sundfør
I went to the Way Out West festival feeling sick and grumpy, I left happy and smiling the first day after seeing just one artist: Susanne Sundfør.
Kraftwerk
I have seen Kraftwerk more than dozen times. They still deliver two hours of magic every single time. Very few artist can match that.
DAF
The energy of Gabi Delgado-López and Robert Görl is still impressive. Mr Görl drummed his way into a near heat exhaustion in Malmö.
Newcomer
Dear Strange
Berlin calling, French/German duo Dear Strange debuted with their album “Lonely Heroes”. Fantastic new wave music.
Artist
Susanne Sundfør
She released the album of the year, toured and is the best live performer I know. An easy choice for me.