Tribeca

The Swedish electronic indie pop duo Tribeca brings together melancholy folk-pop songwriter Lasse Lindh and producer Claes Björklund, who share the worthy if ambitious goal “to make music [they] loved but never heard anywhere.” Their recordings may not deliver startling originality, yet they emerge as more sonically adventurous than most peers on the Labrador records roster while retaining the same melodic appeal. Tribeca’s debut, Kate-97 from 2002, essentially extended Lindh’s second album—the English-language debut You Wake Up at Sea Tac, which Björklund had produced—though it adopted a more upbeat stance and a fresh, meticulous production approach that remained endearingly lo-fi, merging programmed beats and analog synthesizers with crunchy guitars alongside hushed backing vocals. Among its singles were the bouncy, danceable “Teenage” and a cover of a-ha’s “The Sun Always Shines on TV.” That summer, when Lindh and Björklund reentered the studio, their intention was to record a guitar-based third Lasse Lindh album, yet the sessions instead yielded another set of electronic pop songs issued under the Tribeca name as Dragon Down in 2003.