Photo by Johanna Attesson
Folkadelphia Session: Alice Boman
Photo by Johanna Attesson
One of my absolute favorite aspects of the live in-studio format (and if we’re being biased, our own Folkadelphia Sessions) is their ability to contrast a performance from the album version of a song. You get something raw and spontaneous, unique to this one space and time. It allows listeners to hear an artist in a different light, adding complexity and layers to the total package they bring to their songwriting or playing. These in-studio sessions also give the artist a chance to mess with the formula – to flesh out arrangements, to strip songs down to bare essentials, or to manipulate any aspect of their performance in a safe environment. What we commit to tape is often unbelievable.
Such is the case with our brand new session from Swedish songwriter Alice Boman, who over the last few years has released a couple of tenderly beautiful EPs. One was recorded in the intimacy of her bedroom, another in the isolation of a cabin in the woods. When you listen, you feel as if only Boman and you exist in this world of music. Nothing stands between you and Boman’s imagination. In song, you hear her tinkering with ideas and arrangements. I think you also hear the potential for what these songs could be like larger, with more instruments, more man-power.
While she was on tour, Alice Boman and her band stopped by the WXPN Studios and we were able to hear and record what her songs sound like bigger. Horns, percussion, electronics all color the music, giving new life and new light to what we already loved. Listen and hear for yourself.