Lights & Motion

Lights & Motion
Background information
Origin Gothenburg, Sweden
Genres Post-rock, alternative rock, ambient, shoegazing, dream pop
Years active 2012 (2012)–present
Labels Deep Elm
Website facebook.com/lightsandmotion
Members Christoffer Franzén

Lights & Motion are a Swedish cinematic post-rock band, founded in Gothenburg 2012 by Christoffer Franzén. The project came into life after a long period of insomnia,[1] where Christoffer chose to spend his nights locked up in a tiny studio in Gothenburg. The music has been described as cinematic in quality and in its reoccurring use of big crescendos.[2]

The band have so far released three full-length albums, Reanimation, Save Your Heart, and Chronicle, all released through the American independent record label Deep Elm Records.[3] All the music is written by Christoffer Franzén, who also plays every instrument as well as produces and mixes.[4] Music from Lights & Motion have been used in a lot of different trailers, commercials and TV-shows, ranging from The Oscars to the Super Bowl.[5]

In December 2013, Lights & Motion was voted as "The Best New Artist" in the annual polls by Post-rock on Facebook, the world's largest post-rock community.[6]

History

Formation

Lights & Motion was formed in Gothenburg, Sweden in early 2012 by native musician Christoffer Franzén. Originally meant as an outlet during a period of insomnia, the project was supposed to reflect the sense of a dreamlike state in which a lot of the first album was written in.[7] However, the project quickly garnered a lot of attention online, mainly in the alternative and postrock scene,[8] which led to them being signed by famous American independent record label Deep Elm Records, previously home to bands such as The Appleseed Cast and other prominent alternative acts. Originally a guitarist, Franzén started to experiment with writing and recording music by himself in 2011/2012, and soon came to the conclusion that just writing with the guitar was too limiting. This led to him being forced to quickly pick up all the other instruments that he felt he needed, in order to fill the space that he heard in his head.[9]

I would try all these different instruments and record myself over and over in layers, so that I could make it sound huge and not just like one guy in a dark room. I just had such a need for control and I knew exactly what I wanted, so I ended up doing every single thing by myself. I learned all the instruments I needed for what I could hear in my head, and I recorded and recorded and recorded until my ears bled, and slowly I got better at it.

“
”

Christoffer Franzén in an interview in 2013.

Being a self-taught musician in every aspect, Christoffer also learned how to produce, engineer and mix his own works.[10]

The band is influenced by acts like Coldplay, M83, Sigur Rós and Explosions in the Sky, as well as film music.

Reanimation (2011-2013)

Reanimation was written in a period between late 2011 and December 2012, and was then released worldwide on January 16, 2013 through Deep Elm Records. It is the debut album of Lights & Motion, and it contains 13 original songs. The album introduced what has since become a trademark sound for the band, in its fusion of dreamy, melodic guitars backed with strings, lush synthesizers and pounding drums.[11] Although setting the tone for the band's future releases, Reanimation stands out in that it features a much more prominent use of guitars as the leading instrument.

Save Your Heart (2013)

On November 12, 2013, Lights & Motion released their sophomore album titled Save Your Heart, only 10 months after their debut album Reanimation was released. This slightly unorthodox approach of releasing two full-length albums in one year was explained by the band as them "not being able to stop writing".[12] The album contains 11 songs, and it was written and recorded during 2013. When compared to its predecessor, Save Your Heart is much more based around piano and synthesizers, and less around guitars.[13] Franzén can be heard in several interviews talking about how he can "hear sounds as colors", and he has stated about the new album; "I wanted Save Your Heart to have more of a blueish or violet color in terms of sonic identity. In comparison, Reanimation had more of a yellowish tone'.[14]

Chronicle (2015)

The band released their third full-length album called Chronicle , on January 13th 2015, through Deep Elm Records.[15] The album contains 9 songs and ranges in style from Post-rock/ambient, to feature elements of film music. This record is considered being the bands most cinematic accomplishment to date.[16]

Discography

Year Album Release type Chart positions
US
2013 Reanimation Studio album
2013 Save Your Heart Studio album
2015 Chronicle Studio album

Additional Work

Christoffer Franzén is very outspoken about his love for cinema, and film music in particular.[17] Outside of the band's three full-length LP´s, he has written two collections of cinematic songs called "Unreleased (Music for Film & TV)" I and II, both exclusively available via Deep Elm.[18]

Trivia

[24]

Videography

Members

References

  1. ↑ |http://www.stereofox.com/#!/interview-lights-motion|title= Stereofox Interview
  2. ↑ |http://deepelmdigital.com/track/lights-motion-save-your-heart-cinematic-post-rock|title= Lights & Motion Cinematic Postrock
  3. ↑ "Lights & Motion at Deep Elm".
  4. ↑ http://www.earmilk.com/album-reviews/169425/lights-motion/save-your-heart. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  5. ↑ |http://www.nme.com/nme-video/youtube/id/tiHZ1kUPbCY|title= NME Lights & Motion
  6. ↑ Template:Webref
  7. ↑ Template:Webbref
  8. ↑ Template:Webbref
  9. ↑ |http://www.themarshalltown.com/zine/2013/11/25/astronaut-interview-lights-motion/|title= The Astronaut Interview
  10. ↑ |http://www.absolutepunk.net/showthread.php?t=3033851|title= Absolutepunk
  11. ↑ |http://beardrock.com/reviews/lights-motion |title= Beardrock
  12. ↑ |http://www.themarshalltown.com/zine/2013/11/25/astronaut-interview-lights-motion/ |title= marshalltown
  13. ↑ |http://www.earmilk.com/album-reviews/169425/lights-motion/save-your-heart |title= earmilk review
  14. ↑ |http://stationarytravels.wordpress.com/2013/11/11/album-review-save-your-heart-by-lights-motion-deep-elm/ |title= stationary travels review
  15. ↑ |http://deepelmdigital.com/album/chronicle|title= Deep Elm Records
  16. ↑ |http://www.thegardenstatement.com/album-review-lights-and-motion-chronicle/ |title= The Garden Statement
  17. ↑ |https://hollowgraphicsystem.wordpress.com/2013/12/23/qa-with-christoffer-franzen-from-lights-motion/|title= Interview with Franzén
  18. ↑ |http://deepelmdigital.com/album/holiday-visions|title= Deep Elm Records Holiday Visions
  19. ↑ |http://www.godiymusic.com/portfolio/lone-survivor/|title= GODIY MUSIC
  20. ↑ |http://www.godiymusic.com/portfolio/homefront/|title= GODIY MUSIC
  21. ↑ |http://www.godiymusic.com/portfolio/transcendence-trailer/|title= GODIY MUSIC
  22. ↑ |http://www.godiymusic.com/portfolio/google-the-year-in-film//|title= GODIY MUSIC
  23. ↑ |http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g81TGbisua8/|title= Deep Elm Licensing NBC
  24. ↑ |http://variety.com/2015/film/news/golden-trailer-awards-winners-list-2015-furious-7-1201489329/|title= Variety

External links

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