Once even for a couple of days in the American metropolis, you can drown in the variety of music playing at various venues. Broadway, the Metropolitan Opera, “Madison Square garden”, jazz and rock clubs, plazas and streets in the evening, the whole town begins to sound like one giant many-voiced orchestra, in which each “tool” has its own vivid party. “Soundtrack” has gone on a long journey and faced with a dilemma — under what accompaniment to spend the evening in new York.

Photo courtesy of the press service of the group.

The music in the literal sense of the word itself is in your hands: one has only to go to times square, attacking you budding stars of hip-hop, offering to buy their albums. In another area, almost every day can meet two saxophonists, who all the time surprised by a new improvisation, forgetting about the standards (classic jazz when you wish to enjoy, for example, in the famous Carnegie hall). During a visit to “W .” in the city played The Flaming Lips — one of the brightest representatives of neopsychedelic scenes, which are famous for multi-layered arrangements and bizarre “ringing” melodies, soul singer Joan Osborne, known for the hit “One Of Us”, Kronos string Quartet, known for the soundtrack to the film “Requiem for a dream”. However, the “MK” fell on one of the most unusual European indie-bands of the Radio Department.

Manhattan Bowery Ballroom was buzzing like a big anthill. If in Moscow such concerts are coming mostly young people aged 20-25 years, the American public is quite varied: to listen to my favorite band gathered fans from small to large. Guys came out on stage, turned her into something similar to the cabin of a space ship music, which is highlighted by fluorescent lights and filled with unusual sounds. Cold synth lines combined with understated guitar and spiced it dynamic, then Vice versa — smooth rhythms. Vocals sound passes through elegant, unobtrusive line. Despite the fact that Radio Dept fans of smooth tunes, their fans manage to dance even under them, catching the energy wave. There is a whole rainbow of sounds and images, and this is the rare case when the listeners don’t even need a video imagination starts to play juicy pictures to the music.

Popularity came to the Radio Department when three of their songs became the soundtrack to Sofia Coppola’s “Marie Antoinette”, but it all started long before that. The team appeared on the musical horizon back in 1995 in the Swedish town of Lund. Two school friend — Almered Elin and Johan Duncanson decided to be original and named it the same as a gas station, which later turned into a radio workshop, “Radioavdelningen” (as would the name of the team in Swedish). The composition is constantly changing. Performers came and went from the group for ideological reasons, a constant leader was Johan, who in 1998 met with Martin Carlberg who eventually became her second regular participant. A few years later they were joined by bass player Lisa Carlberg, drummer Per Blomgren and keyboardist Daniel Tjader. Where only the performers did not write his opus — in the apartments of friends, in schools, in cellars, under-equipped Studio has not yet found its place under the sun. At some point about the existence of the Radio Dept (the so-called short guys) learned representatives of one of the best Swedish indie record labels and took them under his wing.

Today, the term “indie music” is already blurred: under this category fall almost all the artists who ignore the format, experimenting with sound, and basically do not sign contracts with large companies, but RD was one of the pioneers of directions. Originally they were called shoegaze-team. This humorous definition, derived from the English “shoe” (“Shoe”) produced in the 90 years the musicians, who during performances looked at his feet, quietly muttering the lyrics under the rather monotonous repetitive melody. However, Johan and his comrades are not trampled on constantly refreshing their songs, bringing to them something new, and got rid of the stigma. In addition, at some point, they announced themselves as the “political indie-group” and unlike many foreign counterparts to focus exclusively on the sound. Their protest is directed against neo-fascism and any social discrimination (one of the most famous songs called “Death to Fascism”). However, in an interview with the guys repeatedly confessed: they are well aware that students from other countries (as the audience group international) may not understand the meaning of the songs, but to worry about it does not make sense.

Radio Department came to new York during his world tour with the album “Running Out Of Love” released last year. The cover shows a girl in a military uniform. It was a reaction to all the sad events happening in the world in recent years, military conflicts, terrorist attacks. This is the first album of the band for 6 years and last released on the label, which he held for many years. Artists not yet think with whom they will work on. And for more than twenty years they several times changed the vector of creative movement, so I know firsthand that a new door is waiting for a new interesting experience.