The Swedish summer is the season that draws out the most joy of life and outdoor activities from the population, but it's as much a form of preserving traditions that is rooted centuries back in time. The summer 2004 resembles in big parts the summer of 1938, 1956 or 1972. People make use of the light, the warmth and love to strengthen oneselves before the coming cold. The Midsummer pole is raised, the fresh potatoes are harvested and the cans of herring opened. Bathing places are filled with laughter and life. The terraces of restaurants and bars fill with people. Life and movement are established and becomes amplified.

'Gästhamnar' ('Guest harbours') is about one of the most obvious things of summer: the life of people in small boats. The coastline and the archipelago are embellished with white sails on the horizon. People are mooring and fendering. Side by side lie the seasonal adventurers protected by the sheltering piers, by wooden jetties from the north to the south and let the ship and its crew rest for the night. The guest harbour is an oasis for sailors and motorboat people. Clothes can be washed, provisions be obtained and fuel filled up. The children can run on dry land for awhile.

This record paints, through its quotations from the Swedish Coastguide, detailed pictures of these temporary homes. The simple and unaffected sound supplies the feeling of holiday, the silence and in part the sad insight that this paradise is something perishable. 'Gästhamnar' i...

It happened in turns during five years; Patrik Torsson spent one month at sea and one month ashore. Six months on a tanker and six months at home every year. The month at sea as first mate on a product tanker included navigation and the handling of refined petroleum products. The free month at home was spent exclusively on making and developing music.

After working like this in five years, Patrik decided to take a break from the sea. The free month was not worth the 84-hour weeks in the North and Baltic Sea. It was as much about recovering a tired and exhausted human being as it was about the need to fully concentrate on music for a longer period of time. A cold November evening in Holtenau, where the locks of the Kiel Canal open out into the southern Baltic Sea, Patrik went ashore for a longer period of time.

The full-length debut 'Kolväteserenader' ('Hydrocarbon Serenades') is a recollection of the moments that Patrik remembers the most from the five years at sea. It is about small observations and phenomena. Meeting and talking with people. Weather phenomena, things that stood out of the grey everyday life. 'Kolväteserenader' is about how life as a sailor can be in the 21st century. The music is made with instruments such as guitar and piano, electronic sounds and field recordings. The sound is deliberately left quite raw and unpolished as a personal statement on today's hyper-produced popular music. 'Kolväteserenader' is instead meant to sound like 'at home' or '...