Jonathan Hultén, the darkly enigmatic Swedish Grammy-winning songwriter returns with The Forest Sessions on CD+DVD and LP through Kscope on December 16, 2022.
Following on from the release of his 2020, debut album Chants From Another Place that saw Hultén drawing comparisons to artists such as Nick Drake, Sufjan Stevens and Wovenhand, as well as more traditional folk artists such as John Martyn right through to his contemporaries in Anna Ternheim, José Gonzales, Anna von Hausswolff, Chelsea Wolfe & Hexvessel; The Forest Sessions is a collection of experimental versions of songs taken from both Chants From Another Place and his earlier EP The Dark Night of the Soul, but it is also a short film composed of music videos and interludes with animated illustrations and poems.
Recorded by himself between January 2020 and June 2022, with mastering and mixing taken care of by frequent collaborator Ola Ersfjord this is a deeply intimate work from start to finish. Hultén invites listeners into his world through the stunning album cover which he designed.
Jonathan Hulten explains the concept in more depth, “It all began with an idea of live streaming a concert from the woods! I got a team together, a plan was worked out and eventually the project morphed into the making of 8 unique music videos based on the setlist of a live performance.” He continues “All the filming locations were scouted in reference to the song titles and our plan was to film all the material in 24 hours around an area about 40 minutes from Stockholm, Sweden.”
The audio will also be released on LP and digitally.All formats will be released on December 16 and are available to pre-order at JonathanHulten.lnk.to/ForestSessions
Check out the album trailer below.
