Erik Fastén is man of many talents it seems. His hometown of Gothenburg sees him involved with numerous musical projects such as punk/hardcore and esoteric jazz, but it seems his talents really blossom when he is showing his craft as an intelligent, compassionate and at times quite brilliant solo songwriter.
Ever the experimentalist and indeed improvisationalist, Fastén wrote his material without any conceived notions of genre or mood: “I had no intentions other than to sit down in my bedroom and see what came out. This is what came out.” The result is something gorgeously poetic yet grounded in the raw emotion of reality.
‘Overwhelmed‘ is one of the stand out tracks from Fastén‘s debut EP Brand New Fashion. Minimalist string arrangements accompany a quite lovely solitary folk guitar line, whilst fasten whispers his confessions like a friend trusting you with his life. The tune builds very naturally until Fastén concludes solo with the recurring line “But I won’t dig deep“, which to me signifies a tender promise to a loved one to not pry but stick around perhaps.
Either way, I found Erik Fastén to be an intriguing and solid songwriter.
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