Cake on Cake

w/ Ice Cream Socialists

Monday, November 20 @ Tasty World

originally published November 15, 2006

Helena Sundin

There's a vague sadness present in the songs of Helena Sundin, the 25-year-old Swedish musician from the town of Umeå who performs under the name Cake on Cake. But it's no epic maudlin affair; it's more like the twinge of regret when the nights get a little colder than you'd expected, and you think to yourself, "Huh. So I guess it's going to be winter pretty soon. And I was just starting to enjoy the autumn."

So there's that subtle undercurrent, but the immediate impact of listening to Cake on Cake is one of, well, sweetness. Sundin layers her vocals in curious ways. The songs are delicate yet not necessarily simple, full of textures and sounds that do nothing so much as they twinkle. Lyrically, the content of her songs is to the point, and individual songs are generally structured around one theme or emotion, rather than going for something broader. There's longing, there's love, there's desire, there's sorrow, there's nostalgia. It should appeal to fans of mid-'90s indie pop as well as to those into locally grown music like that of the early Kindercore Records or current Happy Happy Birthday to Me Records stables.

Sundin, classically trained on the piano, cello and vocals, is multi-instrumental and on her new album is credited with all vocals, organ, piano, keyboard, Rhodes, clavinet, metallophone, xylophone, recorders, cat-and-canary-flute, melodica, harmonica, guitar, mandolin, egg, claves, woodblock, tambourine, bells, triangles, cymbals, tablas, hand-drum, snare-drum, electronics, kazoo, sea-shells, hand-clap, lamp-shades, glass animals and more (her buddy Andreas Gabrielsson contributes bass duties on the album, and a couple of other folks show up on instruments Sundin doesn't play).

Cake on Cake signed to American label Desolation Records in 2005, and her debut album I See No Stars came out in November of last year; Sundin will officially release her pretty and charming second album I Guess I Was Daydreaming in early 2007, but it'll be available for purchase at her solo show this week.