The war of our time is raging. The welfare states of the last century are crumbling. Ours is a time of greed, ignorance and sorrow. A sceptic might wonder; Is there really room for hope? Love? Life? Music? But of course there´s hope. We, the children of the third millennia, are it, and we couldn´t get a better interpreter than Tingsek.
Because the 90:s are so gooooone, fuck the shoe-gazers, the indifferent & the blasé. We are a generation force fed with consumerism but starved of feeling. Magnus Tingsek is nothing but feeling. He loves life. Truly and madly and it seeps into his every song.
It was late one night after a gig just above the arctic circle. We were sitting in my hotel room downing too expensive beers and philosophising. In my usual vein of cynicism and hopelessness I had commented on the state of the human race when he suddenly lost it. He gripped me, shook me, as if to try to wake me, shake me. Trying to get me to understand the profundity of hope, the depths of love and the necessity of optimism. And that that, is all we really got.
If it wasn´t for the truth in his eyes and the sincerity, urgency, of his voice I would have laughed and shrugged it off. Now that truth of his is mine too.
This is his second album and he´s been on the road constantly since he released his first. On the first he was a prodigy that let loose all the songs that had been pent up inside him for such a long time. This time everything is new and has been recorded between gigs at breakneck speed. The trademark organic, living, sound of his first album is still there but like all great artists he has evolved. You can feel traces of the contemporary soul of D´angelo, the progressive rock of Dungen, the funk of Sly, the electrical echoes of Depeche Mode all in a supremely danceable, uniquely Tingsek style.
As eclectic as his times, Magnus blends perfectly into the thriving music & art scene in Malmö. Malmö, located in the Southernmost tip of Sweden boasts the lowest rents and the best dj:s. Naturally the city has become a centre for creative spirits and the parties in Magnus studio are legendary. Fittingly he shares the studio space with some of Swedens most talented artists, among others the painter Ola Kalnins.
Just as on his first album he has arranged and played most of the instruments on all the songs. But this time he has also brought in some of the most interesting musicians of the Malmö-scene. Måns Mernsten, Mårten Dahl, Johan Zaar and many more have added their tiny bits of flavour to this piece of supremely human call for feeling.
In many ways Tingsek is heralding a new era, both (the)musical and (the) sociopolitical. We´ve seen the end of cynicism and irony and the birth of neo-naivité. This is actually it, the death of callous despair and the birth & resurrection of naive hope. And Magnus Tingsek is the sound of that dawn breaking.
//Mikael Wranell, friend & co-wanderer
Bio from "Tingsek", released in 2005
This spring saw the release of debut album "Tingsek" from 26 year old Magnus Tingsek from Malmö, Sweden. There have been rumblings from the Swedish indie sector about Magnus since he turned 20 when he got his first record deal with Ramblin Records in Lund - the neighbouring town of Malmö in the Swedish South. After having experienced first-hand the record industry's many ups and more downs over the last years - he has been working on his music - finely tuning a style that he can call his own. Like an adaptation of black and white soul music tinged with Magnus first love - Americana.
It all began in the town of Södra Sandby where Magnus and his brother Anders (long time member of Christian Kjellvander's touring band) got access to the cellar at the local library. Here they sang harmonies to Depeche Mode tunes and inhaled every Beatles recording they got get their hands on. They turned the cellar into a makeshift studio and soon Magnus was playing drums, guitar, bass and was honing his voice in a wide array of local garage bands. As he got older he also mastered the pedal steel guitar with which he has toured with Kjellvander's band Loosegoats, EPs Trailerpark and local Helsingborg band "Ben" . One thing lead to another and soon he was in the US supporting Willie Nelson with Nelson's daughter Paula. In Sweden he also has been touring with Sweden's leading rapper Timbuktu.
