AK-Momo

The Swedish electronic pop duo AK-Momo consists of singer, lyricist and keyboardist AK von Malmborg alongside producer and multi-instrumentalist Mattias Olsson, whose other projects include Nanook of the North and Pineforest Crunch. Formation occurred during summer 2003 after Olsson and von Malmborg, herself a video artist, encountered each other at a bar and chose to work together. Inside Olsson’s Stockholm studio they began investigating the fragile, strangely organic textures produced by vintage instruments such as the Optigan, Mellotron and Orchestran, which quickly led them into songwriting. Although the material destined for their first album, Return to N.Y., was largely complete before von Malmborg departed Stockholm for London at summer’s close, Olsson did not finish mixing and refining the tracks until year’s end. Europe received Return to N.Y. in 2004, while Hidden Agenda brought the album to American listeners early the next year.