Last month the Swedish musician, composer, and producer Sven Wunder released "Daybreak," his fifth full length album since 2019. With a symphony of flutes, strings, and vibraphones, "Daybreak" takes listeners on a journey across the ocean as the sun starts to peek out over the horizon.
Like his previous albums, "Daybreak" is entirely instrumental and incorporates several of Wunder's influences. The first track "Setting Off" sounds like the opening credits of a nature documentary, and in "Scenic Byway" you can hear the funky drums and bass of a 70's action movie.
"This is much more like a soundtrack record," Wunder said. "There are themes on it that come back a couple of times as you're listening. There were some themes that I wanted to reuse and re-imagine as different versions, like as a ballad or a funky track, so I did a bit of experimenting on this record in that way."
Wunder is currently on his first ever U.S. tour where he's on the road with rapper Freddie Gibbs & The Alchemist, one of the most in-demand producers in hip hop today. The tour hits The Ritz in Raleigh on Friday, October 10 and also features the Charlotte rapper MAVI.
While it might seem like an odd pairing at first, it actually makes sense. Sven Wunder's music has been embraced by the hip hop community here in the states and has been sampled by artists like Danny Brown and Czarface. Wunder grew up in the 1990s and says that American hip hop was huge for him when he was in school.
"The first record I ever bought was Cypress Hill's 'Black Sunday.' In Sweden you can get one Swedish krona for every can you recycle, so I collected cans all throughout that summer to buy that album," he said. "I listened to that a lot, and I can still hear the connection in my own music, especially on "Eastern Flowers," my first album."
Wunder grew up in the suburbs of Stockholm in a musical family. His father was a jazz drummer who would often tour Sweden with American musicians like Lee Konitz.
"They would always rehearse in the basement of our house when I was a kid so I grew up with a very close relationship to jazz," he said. "My mom also played classical guitar and was into bossanova."
"Daybreak" is out on Wunder's own label, Piano Piano Records. The label is run by Wunder and his best friend John Henriksson.
"He's the guy who makes all of the artwork and the other graphic design elements," Wunder said.
"He also deals with distribution and networking, so he's a hard working guy. I do all of the music."
Wunder says that keeping things simple at Piano Piano is the key to their success.
"John and I have the same taste. As soon as you start widening out then you lose a bit of artistic control of the whole project, so I think it works fine just like it is at the moment."
