Mando Diao

Mando Diao comes from Swedish town Borlänge. For the new album, they have returned to their hometown. For a few winter weeks, they have stayed at the Omnivox studio together with the sound engineer Håkan Sörle. The result of the recordings will be released soon as “I solnedgången” (In the sunset).

I’ve always been a fan of Mando Diao and of course I’m extremely happy that they chose to record at Omnivox. Hanging out with them in the studio for a few weeks has been something extra, for sure. Pure magic. From a technical point of view the band has worked with a small number of carefully selected microphones and some good pre-amps. Everything has been recorded live, which in itself is a risk-taking — you have to have faith in what you do to choose a process that gives so few opportunities to change things afterwards. What you hear on the record is what took place in the recording room during the session.

A prerequisite for success given the recording method is that the hearts and souls are present in every note. Which is the case here. Therefore, the music on this record really moves in on you, in a way that very few records do. Speaking for myself I get the same kind of feeling I get as when I listen to carefully crafted classics like “Then Play On” by Fleetwood Mac and some of the recordings by The Beatles.