Death and Vanilla

The Swedish outfit Death and Vanilla crafts a distinctive blend of vintage keyboards, lightly twanging guitars, and soft vocals within a restrained, oneiric strain of psychedelic pop that echoes the atmospheric qualities of film scores. Their catalog reveals a sharp ear for melody, whether the tone leans bright and optimistic, as heard on the 2015 single “California Owls,” or more subdued and melancholic, as on the 2019 album Are You a Dreamer?. That same palette adapts readily to the outer reaches of psychedelia, surfacing in both shadowy, cinematic settings—evident in their live scores for the classic Vampyr and the unsettling The Tenant—and in airy, ethereal textures like those found on the 2023 album Flicker.

Marleen Nilsson and Anders Hansson formed the project in Malmö and issued a self-titled four-track EP in 2010 through Hands in the Dark Records. Drawing on period instruments such as Moog synthesizers and Mellotrons, the duo achieved a simultaneously precise and atmospheric result. They followed with a self-titled full-length in 2012, again on Hands in the Dark. That year the Lund Fantastisk Film Festival commissioned the group to create a live soundtrack for Carl Theodor Dreyer’s 1932 horror film Vampyr; the lineup expanded to include Magnus Bodin on Moog, Petter Herbertsson on bass and glockenspiel, and Magnus Westerholm on vibraphonette and percussion. The resulting score appeared on cassette via Moon Glyph in 2013.

After the 2013 single “From Above,” Fire Records took notice and signed the band as work began on the next album. Nilsson, now joined full-time by Bodin, and Hansson tracked the material in their rehearsal space using a single vintage Sennheiser microphone acquired at a flea market. Released by Fire in May 2015 on vinyl and CD, the album took its title from Maurice Sendak’s children’s book, To Where the Wild Things Are. Later that year the trio performed at Spain’s CinemaScore festival, supplying live accompaniment for Roman Polanski’s The Tenant.

Fire reissued the band’s debut album and an expanded edition of the first EP in 2016. Live activity continued, and in 2017 Death and Vanilla contributed a cover of Bert Jansch’s “Moonshine” to the label’s Lost Library EP. Fire also brought the Vampyr soundtrack back on vinyl that year and issued the group’s score for The Tenant in early 2018.

While maintaining these projects, the musicians assembled another album by building loops, layering melodies, and shaping them into songs. After initial work in the rehearsal space they moved recording of vocals to their home; drummer Måns Wikenmo tracked his parts at Malmö’s Tambourine Studio. The resulting 2019 album Are You a Dreamer? adopted a quieter, darker hue while retaining the group’s established sonic references. Like many acts, the band kept a low profile for the next several years, largely focused on new material. Their return arrived with 2023’s Flicker, which introduced touches of dub reggae, early new wave, and avant-garde textures recalling Phillip Glass. The record emerged as their brightest, most tuneful, and upbeat statement to date. Shortly after its release they embarked on a brief North American tour that included an appearance at SXSW.