Taken By Trees 'Open Field' album

TAKEN BY TREES is Victoria Bergsman's new project. You may recognise Victoria's utterly unique voice as that which formerly graced The Concretes. Victoria was singer and songwriter for The Concretes for 11 years up until deciding to leave the band in July 2006.

Then again you may recognise Victoria's voice from one of the biggest and most popular singles of last year - namely, Peter Bjorn & John's infectious 'Young Folks' single.

Now, after much deliberation and thought, Victoria has decided to follow her instincts and record a debut album of her own. Aided and abetted by fellow Peter, Bjorn & John co-horts Bjorn Yttling on various instruments and string arrangements and John Eriksson on all 'very personal' percussion instruments, marimba and vibraphone. The album also features guitar by Andreas Soderstrom, plus Verity Susman from Electrelane, who provided piano arrangements as well as backing vocals. Victoria and Bjorn produced the album together.

The name Taken By Trees was chosen for this new musical adventure partly because of Victoria's explicit love of trees. Which is illustrated by the Taken By Trees website www.takenbytrees.com which has both a storytelling tree section and a series of beautiful photos of outdoor life and particularly trees. Victoria has clearly returned to the basic things that she loves in order to move forward creatively with her music and this inherently beautiful record is the stunning result. The album was deliberately recorded in a fast and spontaneous manner. It was recorded in 6 days straight with Victoria refusing the musicians the chance to get to know the songs too well beforehand in a conscious attempt to keep the recordings alert, full of energy and not overcook them. The songs were developed from the vocal melody up, with only that instrumentation deemed entirely necessary added, keeping the songs true to the ideas which inspired them, as Victoria says "To see how my voice can stand almost alone".

You'll find 'Open Field' packed with stark, delicate pop melodies. Victoria has the sort of voice that stops you in your tracks and demands you listen. Her hauntingly poignant voice, at times brimming with uplifting spirit and then by turns disarmingly plaintive is deeply beguiling. We think it's fair to say that this is a very very special record, nothing short of gorgeous in fact.

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Taken By Trees - Open Field