Editor's info:
Drivan is a new band by Kim Hiorthoy, consisting of Kim, Swedes Lisa Östberg and Louise Peterhoff of Sweden, and Kristiina Viiala of Finland. The group met in Stockholm in the fall of 2007 while working together on a multi-faceted dance piece by choreographer and performance artist Gunilla Heilborn, entitled The Potato Country. The moving, yet humorous performance piece incorporated spoken word and songs written by Hiorthoy, which were fleshed out with the help of his new collaborators. Upon the completion of its run in Stockholm, Hiorthoy asked Lisa, Louise, and Kristiina if they would be interested in collaborating further.

In early 2008 the group met in Skane in the south of Sweden, where they worked on initial sketches and tracks in the remote house and studio of Bebbe Risenfors. New songs were written and subsequently recorded in Stockholm during the fall of that year and spring of 2009. Most of the tracks on the finished album, Disko, began their evolution as a Kim Hiorthoy loop, eventually being built upon by all the collaborators. Drivan is a group first and foremost, with everyone cooperating on lyrics and melodies, and although there are flourishes of Hiorthoy's signature sound, the recordings' folk-oriented and organic feel has the band drawing more from Swedish folk and prog of the 70s, as well as Stina Nordenstam's People Are Strange album.

Sung entirely in Swedish, a lot of the songs on Disko revolve around themes of collectivity and the salvation of something through destruction. Although some of the meaning is lost in translation, lyrics like "If you lose your memory, I will lie about everything in your life" and "Everything we did/we'll do it better later" resound as clearly in English as they do in Swedish. The lyrics to the opening track, "Som en Läderlapp", which can roughly be translated to "Like a piece of leather", take some inspiration from "Bat Out of Hell" by Meat Loaf. ("Läderlapp" was al.......
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