Press
Press Photos
“Solace in Sore Hands” Cover Art
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Amandine Band Photo
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Photo By Teresia Andersson
Amandine Band Photo
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Photo By Jacob Andrén
Amandine Band Photo
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Photo By Maja Atterstig
“This Is Where Our Hearts Collide” Cover Art
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Press Quotes
"Amandine used be known as The Wichita Linemen, singer Olof Gidlöf, has a sweetly melancholic voice in the style of Neil Young or Sufjan Stevens, and some of their songs feature a banjo. But there's a distinct absence of twang or hee-haw. Instead, you get moments of pastoral beauty, Satie-like piano and glacial songs anchored in melodic permafrost." [4/5]
— UNCUT
"What we are presented with is a work of amazing simple beauty and radiance that it's impossible to hold any true misgivings for after even the first listen. Amandine have succeeded in creating an album that will appeal to anyone who can appreciate a strong melody and well-crafted harmony. A true achievement." [9/10]
— Tiny Voices UK
"The second album from Sweden's Amandine is a beauty, at once grandiose and intimate. Rooted in Americana, the band incorporates horns, glockenspiel, and accordian and comes out near Songs:Ohia and My Morning Jacket."
— Under The Radar Magazine
"Like its predecessor, Solace is a startlingly mature record. The musicianship is outstanding throughout, with banjos, violins, harmonicas and pedal steel all jostling for centre stage at one point or another, and the resulting sound is one that again lies in the Americana realm, with added tinges of folk and rockier moments too." [7/10]
— No Ripcord
"You know immediately when your ears are being graced by genuinely great music. Listening to Solace in Sore Hands I have found myself in one of those moments — the attention to instrumental detail is amazing. From the twang of Olof Gidlof's banjo, to the transitions John Andersson makes between his accordion, glockenspiel and the piano; every second is timed and orchestrated perfectly. "
— Spacelab
"Swedish band Amandine's second LP is a pleasure to listen to. The soft vocals and multitiude of instruments recall Sufjan Stevens's more explicitly folky moments, and fans of Mr Stevens will almost certainly enjoy this record. "
— Pennyblackmusic UK
"If Wilco's Yankee Hotel Foxtrot goes down as the defining example of new-millennium country, using white noise and electronic samples to combine traditional song-writing with modern musical aesthetics, Solace in Sore Hands represents its wonderful antithesis. Allowing for the odd barrage of guitars, a la Silver Mt Zion, it echoes the sweet melodies and rural authenticity of 50s Carolina through simple plucks and beautiful vocals. If it weren't for the clean vistas of producer Ove Andersson's mix (and a helpful press release), I'd have never guessed this were a contemporary record, let alone one made in Sweden. The beauty of Solace in Sore Hands renders it homeless and timeless: it is the sound of the wilderness, and the thoughts and emotions that such isolation provokes."
— Fact Magazine
"…Solace is, by comparison, a livelier affair that nevertheless hews closely to the band's wistful aesthetic. Singer Olof Gidlöf's upper-register vocals still sound like a frail cousin to Sufjan Stevens or Sam Beam, and Solace's despondent narratives are pretty much what you'd expect from a country with the purported highest suicide rate in the world. "Who says hardship make us strong?" a perplexed and resigned Gidlöf asks on "Silver Bells," a fair barometer of Amandine's general tenor. But this time around, the guitars are more often electric than acoustic, the soft/loud contrasts greater, and the crescendos tend to burn rather than smolder. This is especially true of cuts like "Chores of the Heart," "Secrets," and album highlight "Our Nameless Will," where rousing, full-throated choruses buffet gentle verses accented with banjo, piano, accordion, glockenspiel, and violin…" [ 3.5/5]
— Allmusic.com
"On This Is Where Our Hearts Collide, Amandine roam across a vast and chilly plain, tumbling guitars
and graceful bearing aligning them with the windswept Americana of Sun Kil Moon, Songs:Ohia, or pre-Z My Morning
Jacket. The arrangements are spare yet sky-wide, occasionally visited by banjos, accordions, glockenspiels, and
theremin." [7.6]
— Pitchfork Media
Amandine, Leave out the sad parts (Fat Cat)
Swedish quartet Amandine has matered the art of depressive folk-pop with a mixture of hushed vocals, dismal
string/piano arrangements and straightforward production that's fit for slow-motion scenes in movies
about the American West. But ignore the album title — if you leave out the sad parts, you'll end up
with a blank disc.
— Paste
"Their country-folk is dimly lit, extra shadows courtesy of lonely harmonica and eerie female vocals."
— Uncut magazine
"Warm, emotive and wistful, with a quiet power surging underneath, This Is Where Our Hearts Collide
is a mature and accomplished debut that promises, perhaps, future brilliance." [7/10]
— No Ripcord
"If you let it, this debut from Sweden's Amandine will break your heart. Not with its lush, chamber-folk
arrangements—pregnant with swelling strings, blood-stirring brass, brooding piano and even muted accordion—
although those are very pretty. No, what'll do it, if you listen too closely, are the words, sung by Olof Gidlof with
the soft-spoken conviction of Sam Beam."
— HARP Magazine
"This Is Where Our Hearts Collide utilizes beautiful string work and just the right splash of female
harmony vocals on a few tracks to make the album tender yet strong."
— Red Alert.Com
— Treble Zine
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