
Theatrical, icy synth-pop from Sweden that feels like a walk through a foggy northern forest. Atmospheric electronics for deep thinkers and late-night explorers.
Twice a Man creates a sound that is fundamentally tied to the landscape and light of Scandinavia. It is electronic music that breathes with a cold, organic pulse, blending the sharp edges of 80s synthesizers with a theatrical sense of space. Their work often feels like a stage play occurring in a dream, where every beat is a footfall in a vast, echoing hall and every melody is a distant light through the mist.
What truly sets them apart is their transition from the jagged, minimal wave of their early years into a sophisticated, sample-heavy art pop. They treat the synthesizer not just as a lead instrument, but as a tool for world-building, incorporating environmental textures and dramatic vocal deliveries that suggest a narrative just out of reach. There is a persistent 'northern' quality to their work: a mix of isolation, beauty, and quiet intensity.
For those new to their catalog, 'From a Northern Shore' or 'Agricultural Beauty' provide the perfect entry points. These albums showcase their ability to balance catchy, rhythmic synth-pop with the avant-garde soundscapes they developed through their extensive work in theatre and film scoring.
Twice a Man are an electronic music group based in Gothenburg, Sweden, comprising members Dan Söderqvist (born 9 May 1953) and Karl Gasleben (born Ingemar Ljungström; 30 January 1953). Dan and Karl met in Gothenburg during the early 1970s when they played in groups Älgarnas Trädgård and Anna Själv Tredje. The duo was formed in 1978 as Cosmic Overdose. After changing their name to their current title in 1981, Twice a Man released their first album, Music for Girls, in 1982. The group have consistently used synthesizers and electronic effects to create their theatrical and atmospheric soundscapes, and from 1984 they began to work with samplers. The group has featured a variety of musicians in their line up, including long-time collaborator Jocke Söderqvist, who rejoined the group in 2013 for club and festival concerts based around some of their earlier works. They have also written music for theatre (including several works for the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm), television, film and radio. The group also composed the soundtrack to the PlayStation video game, Kula World. In the early 1990s, Twice a Man created a side-project entitled The Butterfly Effect, an experimental electronic project which installed writer Zac O' Yeah as light designer and Peter Davidson as musician and singer, releasing the album Trip in 1991. They later continued as Twice a Man, but during the decade they decreased their production of studio albums and tours to concentrate on project-based work, often in collaboration with theatre, visual artists or companies. Recent works by Twice a Man include the album, Icicles, released in April 2010, as well as a 50-minute ambient CD, Costume Area, which was released to coincide with the opening of a Charles Koroly exhibition at the Dansmuseet museum in Stockholm, for which they provided music and sound design. Their most recent album, On the Other Side of the Mirror, was released in June 2020 in both CD and vinyl editions.
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