Nicolai Dunger

We don't know for sure, but it seems likely that Nicolai Dunger's elementary-school report card may have said, "Plays well with others."

He's certainly accomplished that as an adult. After being discovered while singing on a balcony in his home town of Piteå in northern Sweden, Dunger gave up a promising career as a Swedish national soccer player and decided to pursue his passion for music. He has since recorded or toured with artists as varied as Soundtrack of Our Lives, Will Oldham, Calexico, Sufjan Stevens, and 'Here's My Song' co-producers Mercury Rev.

The collaboration with Mercury Rev is rare in the way it mutually enhances both parties; Dunger's aching melodies and soulful vocals mesh with Rev's dreamy yet driving sound seamlessly, and with an ease that reflects the fun the musicians had playing together. The end result recalls the joyful, pastoral soul of vintage Van Morrison and the melancholy crooning of both Tim and Jeff Buckley.

"It was a good mixture," Nicolai says of the collaboration, which began in earnest when the two artists toured together (they first made contact when Rev's Jonathan Donahue phoned Nicolai to express admiration for his First Born Track EP). "I think we brought out the best in each other. They're almost like the Band or Stax musicians, with that dukka-dukka drum beat. It also allowed me to put down my guitar and concentrate more on being a singer." (Nicolai's guitarist Thomas Tjärnkvist also contributed extensively to the album, most strikingly on "White Wild Horses.")

The musicians acted much more as collaborators on the album than as a backing band, as Nicolai illustrates. "'Hunger' used to be a slow shuffle in its original arrangement, but we turned it into more of a rocker," he says. "What I like most is the Motown feel to the beat on the chorus. And I hadn't originally intended to record 'White Wild Horses' for this album-by mistake, my manager sent an MP3 of this track to Mercury Rev, and they insisted on keeping it on."

The album was rehearsed and recorded over several sessions in Rev's home base of upstate New York, and a later session in Stockholm. "This was the first time I had taken so much time in planning the recording and fine-tuning the songs," Nicolai says. "[Mercury Rev] knew the songs from when we toured together-I always play a lot of new songs live-but we made sure that each session, we had one or two new songs, just to keep things fresh. 'The Year of the Love and Hurt Cycle' was one of those, and so was 'Someone New.' They were really good at simplifying my songs and putting them into more of a rock arena than I had ever done before. We wanted this record to be a little more direct than the others. It's probably my broadest album to date."

Considering how joyful and energetic many of the songs are, it may come as a surprise to learn that they were born in considerable sadness. "My girlfriend and I broke up, and all the songs are to her," Nicolai says. "That's why it has that long, complicated, title. I couldn't be with her, and there wasnt any other way to keep in touch, really. And my mother passed away at the same time. It's not a sad-sounding record, but it is for me when I hear it, of course, because my mother listened to it all the time before she passed away, so it all just reminds me of that. But when we recorded it we had a lot of fun--we went to the bar in Kingston [New York], we had a lot of parties, so we had a good time."

As for other collaborations he'd like to undertake, Nicolai says, "The only guy I really want to work with is Vincent Gallo-the scores for his movies are amazing. He's crazy, of course, but I like that-talk to anybody who knew Miles Davis!"

The story goes that Nicolai Dunger was discovered singing and playing guitar on his balcony in Piteå, Sweden. But the representative for Telegram who signed him was probably not very happy with the experimental music that emerged from the supposed singer/songwriter and the record Songs Wearing Clothes, which few people have heard about. But Dunger obviously had a lot of talent and was given another try with the album Eventide, recorded together with the string quartet Tämmelkvartetten. This album sold even less than the 1,500 copies of the previous album, and Dunger, who now lived in Stockholm, earned his living as a gardener.

Playing at Hultfredsfestivalen, he met Ebbot Lundberg from the Soundtrack of Our Lives and they decided to make an album together. In 1998, they recorded the EP First Born Track, which was only released as a promo, and the next year they recorded This Cloud Is Learning together in the Soundtrack of our Lives' studio, White Noise. This was Dunger's most accessible album so far, but was still rather experimental. Probably as a result of the collaboration with the more well-known Lundberg, this album got much more attention than the earlier ones, and the reactions were favorable. And even though it did not sell well, it sold slightly more in France and England, and Dunger went on a tour to the Continent, backing Emiliana Torrini.

Meanwhile, Dunger's record company agreed to let an oil company use one of his songs in a commercial. And although, upon his return from touring, Dunger expressed disapproval regarding this turn of events, he used the money to record Blind Blemished Blues, the first album in a planned vinyl trilogy, recorded together with Esbjörn Svensson's jazz trio. This album was a return to the more experimental, and the 500 LPs that were pressed could only be bought from a small online store. Soon afterwards, he recorded the second LP in the trilogy, this time together with trumpet player Goran Kajfes and the art percussionist ensemble Kroumata, but he decided to wait to release it. While still not having much of an audience in Sweden, his eccentric way of dodging a breakthrough by releasing unexpected albums, his rural charm, and the interest shown in him by Will Oldham and Jonathan Donahue -- not to mention his obvious talent -- granted him continued attention from the music press.

The most unexpected thing he could do by now was to release an "easy" album, and that was what he did with Soul Rush in 2001. Again being backed by the Esbjörn Svensson Trio, Dunger presented a mix of soulful horns and country guitars, not at all unlike an early Van Morrison. And without being a great commercial success, this album sold many more copies than the previous ones. Tranquil Isolation, an elaborate vision of Americana that was recorded in Kentucky, appeared on Overcoat Records in 2003, followed by the improbably named Here's My Song You Can Have It...I Don't Want It Anymore/Yours 4-Ever on Universal International in 2004.In 2006 Dunger released Nicollide & The Carmic Retrebution, followed by Rosten Och Herren in 2007. ~ Lars Lovén, All Music Guide