Swedish Lofi Mafia; an artistic nod to being proud of where we came from.
The first official Amelia Grace release was truly a special one. Four Swedish Lofi producers, Darecloud, Chet Moony, hmps & Rosa Molns, came together to craft a remarkable piece of audio-art. Within the process of releasing this track, Amelia Grace Recordings developed its infrastructure, its processes & procedures, and with the cover art, created the visual aesthetic of the label. Today, we celebrate this beautiful Lofi tune and discuss its multifarious sonic happenings.
The track kicks off with an ethereal ambient noise leading into an indie-style guitar progression. Within a few seconds, we’re drenched with a gorgeous bluesy guitar riff that evokes an almost R&B-like feel. The atmosphere is held together with a heavily texturized vinyl-saturation. We move through a mature and thoughtful chord progression until we arrive at a suspended cymbal riser. The artistic choice to delay the beat drop by one measure is oh-so rewarding, as we get to embrace the feeling of satisfaction tenfold once it finally kicks in. Deep, resonant bass and heavily reverberated drums manufacture a larger-than-life environment for the mix to live in. It almost feels as though we’re listening to the song performed live, in a canyon or a natural amphitheater of sorts. Organic sounding hi-hats gift a feeling of authenticity to the groove that digital sound-selection simply wouldn’t be able to stack up to. The track moves through several variations of the same musical phrase in a way that never allows the vibe of the track to grow stale. Delicately soft, felt piano counter-melodies and arpeggiated synth patches provide a great deal of depth and sonority to an otherwise simple musical concept. A carefully tucked choir patch gives the mix width, and contributes to the vastness of the listening environment. The glue of the track, the guitar progression from the beginning, exists right in front of us for the entire journey. Yet somehow, there is enough variation and smoothness to the weaving of the musical elements that we almost forget its there at times. The simplicity of the track makes it so accessible, yet the elements are so carefully selected and seamless in their implementation, that “Passing By You” is the quintessential lofi tune we never knew we needed in our lives.
We met with one of the producers, hmps, to discuss the inspiration behind the track and more…
Perhaps the most fascinating thing to note about Passing By You is the production crew. It’s not often we see a lofi track created by four different artists, but here we have four producers, ALL hailing from Scandinavia; Four men from Sweden who deliberately chose to get together and produce a lofi track for the simple purpose of collaborating with their countrymen. The operation serves as an homage to their origin and purposefully representing where they came from. We were more than happy to host such a momentous occasion at Amelia Grace Recordings; let alone the fact that its a phenomenal production to begin with. In the beginning stages, when Darecloud was submitting the track, there was some confusion about how the track would display the primary artists on Spotify, due to the fact that there would be five of them (the four Swedish producers, plus the label profile). Apparently, four or more primary artists will display on streaming platforms as “Various Artists”. This is certainly a buzz-kill, and I couldn’t resist joking in the group-chat that we should just upload the track under a new, combined artist profile name, “Swedish Lofi Mafia”; a silly reference to the popular Swedish House Mafia. After a few pity laughs, teamwork made the dream work. To counteract our primary artist delimma, a few of the producers offered to be listed as “featured”. This way, the song would have less than four primary artists. Nevertheless, it’s important to note that each artist contributed a great deal to the production. Passing By You will go down in history as the original AGR release, and one that holds so much meaning. Never forget where you came from.
You can enjoy Passing By You on your favorite listening platform HERE
