PRESS KIT

Swedish duo MOLOSSER is guitarist, singer and sometimes drummer Tess, and guitarist Jahn, who create their very own brand of dark americana/alternative rock on two downtuned acoustic guitars. The atmospheric soundscapes on the internationally acclaimed debut album Appear (2021) evolved into the minimalistic live performances of the successful Barebones Sessions (2022) which in turn point the way for new, as yet unreleased,  material that lands more firmly in the land of acoustic Americana, though in Molosser's unique style, influenced by blues, jazz and riff-heavy rock music.

Instead of strumming or fingerpicking their downtuned guitars in a traditional way, Molosser weave together seemingly simple components – riffs, basslines, melodies –  to form a dynamic, vibrant texture where the two guitars dance with each other and with Tess's strong, sensitive and soulful vocals.

VIDEO

Molosser's music videos have been very successful, probably because they manage to catch the atmosphere of the music despite a zero budget . Below is a small selection, but every single track on the debut album Appear has its own video, just like the four tracks in the Barebones series. Go to Molosser's video page to find the rest, including a highly idiosyncratic cover of AC/DC's Back in Black.

The easy way to keep track of Molosser CRUDE's videos? Subscribe to Evil Ear's YouTube Channel!

LONG BIO

"The sound is so simple, how can it be so complicated? This is Frustratingly Beautiful Music."

That is what Mustard Relics (USA) wrote about Molosser’s debut album Appear in 2021. Tess and Jahn in Molosser took the concept of an acoustic guitar duo to new places by tuning their instruments down to Drop C (a tuning more widely used by heavy metal guitarists) and shaping their music from interwoven basslines, riffs and melody lines rather than the usual strumming or fingerpicking. Add to this the strong yet intimate vocals of singer Tess, and you have three distinct voices making up a bubbling, dynamic soundscape.

Molosser’s current sound leans more towards dark Americana with strong influences of blues and jazz than the atmospheric alt-rock of Appear, but the seamless, dynamic interplay is still there, as well as subtle – and not so subtle – hints of riff-heavy music like grunge, stoner rock and post-punk. These influences give even slow and low-key songs an edge and a nerve that might not normally be associated with acoustic guitar music. They have also made idiosyncratic covers of both Soundgarden and AC/DC.

The duo started their path towards ever more stripped-down arrangements on the Barebones Sessions from early 2022 where they presented live versions of some of the songs from Appear. After this, Molosser actually recorded a whole album’s worth of new material in a somewhat more traditional vein, but before these new recordings had been mixed, Tess and Jahn had started a new project – Molosser Crude. Crude is just as loud and electric and noisy as Molosser is low-key and acoustic, and was originally just meant as a way to channel those sides of the duo’s musical energy, but Molosser Crude soon got a life of it’s own, and the two projects started cross-fertilizing each other. Thus, Molosser’s album recordings were scrapped when the songs kept growing in new directions, and they are currently being recorded again in their new versions.

Late 2022 and early 2023 have been mostly Molosser Crude, output-wise, but now both duos are thriving, gigging and recording. Visitors to Motala’s Bomber Fest in July 2023 will have the opportunity to hear both bands as they perform their radically different versions of the same songs, as well as some tracks that are unique for each duo. As yet.

Tess and Jahn met in Gothenburg, where both played in loud , noisy outfits spanning from noise rock to free-form jazz. After relocating to a (very) small farm in Uråsa, Småland, they formed Molosser as a way of combining their urban influences with the more subtle goings-on and magic mysteries of the Swedish nature and countryside.

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