Lights & Motion

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Lights & Motion
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Background information
Origin Gothenburg, Sweden
Genres Post-rock, alternative rock, ambient, shoegazing, dream pop
Years active 2012 (2012)–present
Labels Deep Elm
Website facebook.com/lightsandmotion
Members Christoffer Franzén

Lights & Motion are a Swedish cinematic post-rock band, founded in Gothenburg 2012 by Christoffer Franzén. The project came into life after a long period of insomnia,[1] where Christoffer chose to spend his nights locked up in a tiny studio in Gothenburg. The music has been described as cinematic in quality and in its reoccurring use of big crescendos.[2]

The band have so far released three full-length albums, Reanimation, Save Your Heart, and Chronicle, all released through the American independent record label Deep Elm Records.[3] All the music is written by Christoffer Franzén, who also plays every instrument as well as produces and mixes.[4] Music from Lights & Motion have been used in a lot of different trailers, commercials and TV-shows, ranging from The Oscars to the Super Bowl.[5]

In December 2013, Lights & Motion was voted as "The Best New Artist" in the annual polls by Post-rock on Facebook, the world's largest post-rock community.[6]

History

Formation

Lights & Motion was formed in Gothenburg, Sweden in early 2012 by native musician Christoffer Franzén. Originally meant as an outlet during a period of insomnia, the project was supposed to reflect the sense of a dreamlike state in which a lot of the first album was written in.[7] However, the project quickly garnered a lot of attention online, mainly in the alternative and postrock scene,[8] which led to them being signed by famous American independent record label Deep Elm Records, previously home to bands such as The Appleseed Cast and other prominent alternative acts. Originally a guitarist, Franzén started to experiment with writing and recording music by himself in 2011/2012, and soon came to the conclusion that just writing with the guitar was too limiting. This led to him being forced to quickly pick up all the other instruments that he felt he needed, in order to fill the space that he heard in his head.[9]

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I would try all these different instruments and record myself over and over in layers, so that I could make it sound huge and not just like one guy in a dark room. I just had such a need for control and I knew exactly what I wanted, so I ended up doing every single thing by myself. I learned all the instruments I needed for what I could hear in my head, and I recorded and recorded and recorded until my ears bled, and slowly I got better at it.

Christoffer Franzén in an interview in 2013.

Being a self-taught musician in every aspect, Christoffer also learned how to produce, engineer and mix his own works.[10]

The band is influenced by acts like Coldplay, M83, Sigur Rós and Explosions in the Sky, as well as film music.

Reanimation (2011-2013)

Reanimation was written in a period between late 2011 and December 2012, and was then released worldwide on January 16, 2013 through Deep Elm Records. It is the debut album of Lights & Motion, and it contains 13 original songs. The album introduced what has since become a trademark sound for the band, in its fusion of dreamy, melodic guitars backed with strings, lush synthesizers and pounding drums.[11] Although setting the tone for the band's future releases, Reanimation stands out in that it features a much more prominent use of guitars as the leading instrument.

Save Your Heart (2013)

On November 12, 2013, Lights & Motion released their sophomore album titled Save Your Heart, only 10 months after their debut album Reanimation was released. This slightly unorthodox approach of releasing two full-length albums in one year was explained by the band as them "not being able to stop writing".[12] The album contains 11 songs, and it was written and recorded during 2013. When compared to its predecessor, Save Your Heart is much more based around piano and synthesizers, and less around guitars.[13] Franzén can be heard in several interviews talking about how he can "hear sounds as colors", and he has stated about the new album; "I wanted Save Your Heart to have more of a blueish or violet color in terms of sonic identity. In comparison, Reanimation had more of a yellowish tone'.[14]

Chronicle (2015)

The band released their third full-length album called Chronicle , on January 13th 2015, through Deep Elm Records.[15] The album contains 9 songs and ranges in style from Post-rock/ambient, to feature elements of film music. This record is considered being the bands most cinematic accomplishment to date.[16]

Discography

Year Album Release type Chart positions
US
2013 Reanimation Studio album
2013 Save Your Heart Studio album
2015 Chronicle Studio album

Additional Work

Christoffer Franzén is very outspoken about his love for cinema, and film music in particular.[17] Outside of the band's three full-length LP´s, he has written two collections of cinematic songs called "Unreleased (Music for Film & TV)" I and II, both exclusively available via Deep Elm.[18]

Trivia

  • The first trailer for the Universal produced film Lone Survivor uses "Aerials" as its intro-music.[19]
  • The film Homefront uses the track "Faded Fluorescence"' in its first two trailers.[20]
  • The movie Transcendence starring Johnny Depp and Morgan Freeman, features "We Are Ghosts" in its first theatrical trailer.[21]
  • Google used "The March" for its commercial that aired worldwide on television during the Academy Awards (2013), featuring all the oscar nominated films of that year.[22]
  • American NBC used the track "Home" in their promos for the TV-show The New Normal.[23]
  • Lights & Motion provided additional guitars, keyboard, string arrangements and programming for Australian metalcore band I Killed the Prom Queen´s third full-length studio album Beloved.
  • Their song Heartbeats was used in the promotional trailer for the film La Vida Robot.
  • "Drift" was used by Sky Arts (UK Television) in their promotional trailers for Playhouse Presents.
  • "Drift" was used by NBC in their Tour De France Promo.
  • "Home" was used by BBC in their television ads for Polands Independence.
  • "Reanimation" was used in NBC´s So You Think You Can Dance.
  • "Ultraviolet" was used in the promotional commercials for the NBC show A to Z.
  • "Drift" was used by Budweiser in their Canadian commercials.
  • "Drift" was used by Rip curl in their commercials for their SurfGPS Watch campaign.
  • "Home" was used in the Government of Poland's new TV commercial and promo campaign "Spring Into New.", airing on CNN, BBC etc.
  • "Home" was used in the trailer for the film Meet The Mormons.
  • "Atlas" was used in a commercial for Visa Inc., narrated by Morgan Freeman.
  • "Departure" was used by GoPro in their "Line Of The Winter" video.
  • "Faded Fluorescence" was used in the 2015 Super Bowl trailer for Furious 7. The trailer by Lights & Motion was awarded "Best Of Show" and "Best Action Trailer" at the 16th annual Golden Trailer Awards in Beverly Hills, Hollywood.

[24]

  • "Fireflies" was featured in the The Vampire Diaries episode "Let Her Go".
  • "We Are Ghosts" was featured in Apple's Academy Awards (2015) spot.
  • "Antlers" was featured in Samsung's HD TV campaign.
  • "Reborn" was used by NBC in a trailer for the TV show A.D. The Bible Continues, which is a continuation of the show The Bible.
  • "Crystalline" was used in a promo for NBC's The Voice.
  • "Lend Me The Courage Of Stars" was used in the televised ad campaign "For The Hero In All Of Us" for NBC Universal and WWE.
  • "The Spectacular Quiet" was used by The Guardian in their "Keep it in the ground" campaign video.
  • "Heartbeats" was used by Google during their Google I/O 2015 Keynote in San Francisco.
  • "Requiem" was used in the trailer for the motion picture No Escape (No Escape (2015 film)).
  • "Heartbeats" was used in the second trailer for the motion picture Concussion (Concussion (2015 film)), starring Will Smith.
  • "Glow" was featured in the The Vampire Diaries episode "Hold me, Thrill me, Kiss me".
  • "Fireflies" was featured in the The Vampire Diaries episode "This Woman´s Work".

Videography

  • Home (2013)
  • The March (2014)
  • The Spectacular Quiet (2015)
  • Reborn (2015)
  • Paper Wings (2015)

Members

  • Christoffer Franzén - lead vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass guitar, drums, piano, keyboards, synthesizers, organ, glockenspiel, samples, orchestration, production, percussion

References

  1. ↑ |http://www.stereofox.com/#!/interview-lights-motion%7Ctitle= Stereofox Interview
  2. ↑ |http://deepelmdigital.com/track/lights-motion-save-your-heart-cinematic-post-rock%7Ctitle= Lights & Motion Cinematic Postrock
  3. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  4. ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
  5. ↑ |http://www.nme.com/nme-video/youtube/id/tiHZ1kUPbCY%7Ctitle= NME Lights & Motion
  6. ↑ Template:Webref
  7. ↑ Template:Webbref
  8. ↑ Template:Webbref
  9. ↑ |http://www.themarshalltown.com/zine/2013/11/25/astronaut-interview-lights-motion/%7Ctitle= The Astronaut Interview
  10. ↑ |http://www.absolutepunk.net/showthread.php?t=3033851%7Ctitle= Absolutepunk
  11. ↑ |http://beardrock.com/reviews/lights-motion |title= Beardrock
  12. ↑ |http://www.themarshalltown.com/zine/2013/11/25/astronaut-interview-lights-motion/ |title= marshalltown
  13. ↑ |http://www.earmilk.com/album-reviews/169425/lights-motion/save-your-heart |title= earmilk review
  14. ↑ |http://stationarytravels.wordpress.com/2013/11/11/album-review-save-your-heart-by-lights-motion-deep-elm/ |title= stationary travels review
  15. ↑ |http://deepelmdigital.com/album/chronicle%7Ctitle= Deep Elm Records
  16. ↑ |http://www.thegardenstatement.com/album-review-lights-and-motion-chronicle/ |title= The Garden Statement
  17. ↑ |https://hollowgraphicsystem.wordpress.com/2013/12/23/qa-with-christoffer-franzen-from-lights-motion/%7Ctitle= Interview with Franzén
  18. ↑ |http://deepelmdigital.com/album/holiday-visions%7Ctitle= Deep Elm Records Holiday Visions
  19. ↑ |http://www.godiymusic.com/portfolio/lone-survivor/%7Ctitle= GODIY MUSIC
  20. ↑ |http://www.godiymusic.com/portfolio/homefront/%7Ctitle= GODIY MUSIC
  21. ↑ |http://www.godiymusic.com/portfolio/transcendence-trailer/%7Ctitle= GODIY MUSIC
  22. ↑ |http://www.godiymusic.com/portfolio/google-the-year-in-film//%7Ctitle= GODIY MUSIC
  23. ↑ |http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g81TGbisua8/%7Ctitle= Deep Elm Licensing NBC
  24. ↑ |http://variety.com/2015/film/news/golden-trailer-awards-winners-list-2015-furious-7-1201489329/%7Ctitle= Variety

External links

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