Action Biker - Hesperian Puisto

  by John Clarkson

published: 26 / 7 / 2010

Label: Destination Pop
Format: 7"

intro

Surreal and striking lo-fi electronica from Action Biker, the project of Swedish musician Sarah Nyberg Pergament

Action Biker is the moniker of Stockholm-based singer and musician Sarah Nyberg Pergament. Pergament has also played in a duo entitled the Dreamers with English singer-songwriter Kevin Wright, who had an excellent album, ‘Day for Night’, out in 2007. She has collaborated too with a variety of other indie pop artists including Darren Hanlon, the Field and the Sound of Arrows. Action Biker’s sound is lo-fi and electronic with a melancholic edge. ‘Hesperian Puisto’, Action Biker’s new single, is both Pergament’s first new release in two years, and (with Billy MacKenzie and Steve Aungle’s ‘Return To Love’)the joint debut release of vinyl only Berlin-based label Destination Pop. Perhaps ‘Hesperian Puisto’ and its B side, ‘Tears With You Tears Without’, should have been swapped around. ‘Hesperian Puisto’ has already seen a release and is also the title track of Action Biker’s 2008 debut album. An abstract and echoing-sounding piece of chiming pop, it is tantalisingly brief at barely two minutes long and, while beautiful, over almost as soon as it seems it has started. ‘Tears With You Tears Without’ is new, recorded earlier this year, and at almost twice the length fuller. Coming from a similar place musically as the main track with that same sense of slightly off-kilter sadness, it captures perfectly the disorientation and pain of being in a relationship which you know you should no longer really be in, but can’t quite bear to let go of. The front cover art which has been drawn by Pergament herself is equally surreal and striking, showing a girl trapped beneath a bed of flowers. It is a throwback to a better era when packaging was an essential part of a release. While ‘Tears With You Tears Without’ should have possibly been made the focal track, Destination Pop have set the bar with this this very high for future items. More information can be found at www.destinationpop.wordpress.com.

Track Listing:-