Ak-momo

by Heather Phares The Swedish electronic pop duo AK-Momo features singer/lyricist/keyboardist AK von Malmborg and producer/multi-instrumentalist Mattias Olsson, who also works with Nanook of the North and Pineforest Crunch. The band came into being in summer 2003, when Olsson and von Malmborg, who is also a video artist, met at a bar and decided to collaborate. At Olsson's Stockholm studio, the pair explored the delicate, oddly organic sounds of vintage electronics such as the Optigan, Mellotron, and Orchestran, and found themselves writing songs almost immediately. Though the songs that became their debut album, Return to N.Y., were mostly done by the time von Malmborg left Stockholm for London at the end of the summer, it took until the end of the year for Olsson to mix and polish them. Return to N.Y. was released in Europe in 2004, and was issued in the U.S. by Hidden Agenda early the following year.