Listen: The Forest & The Trees – What We Lost EP

The Forest & The Trees should rightfully be Stockholm’s favourite children. For the best part of half a decade, Joel & Linnea Edin have been writing the sort of effortlessly charming, widescreen pop that so perfectly reflects the beauty of their native city.

‘What We Lost’ is The Forest & The Trees’ first release in over a year, and on first listen it is clear that the Edins’ songwriting has matured during that time. Where their debut album demonstrated a burgeoning talent for bittersweet beauty, ‘What We Lost’ sees that talent truly flourish. It is an expansive song, propelled by cracking floor toms and Joel’s beautiful falsetto.

Their nationality is instantly recognisable in their output. Theirs is a distinctively Swedish sound – but it is also more ambitious, bolder, more intricately constructed than that of many of their peers. ‘What We Lost’, though, sees The Forest & The Trees explore a side of the country with which British Swedophiles might not be familiar.

“‘What We Lost’ is about Sweden’s lost innocence,” says Joel. “An ultra-right party joined the parliament last autumn, so it’s a love song for what Sweden once was.” Joel isn’t scared to conceptualise the duo’s output. “There’s a lot of symbolism in the name,” he says. “The trees represent the concrete parts of our music. The forest represents the more abstract, atmospheric sounds and emotions that surround the songs.”

“To us, the forest is a mighty, spiritual, mysterious and ancient place that’s always intact, always home, and always a bit frightening. Like we want our music to be.”

The Forest & The Trees are that very rare thing: a band with abilities that match their ambitions. ‘What We Lost’ is the sound of a band fulfilling their potential, and doing so in grand style – while remaining firmly rooted in the country that birthed them.

Listen to the new single above, alongside a brand new remix by fellow Stockholmite Christian Niva and two reworks from the self-titled album courtesy of Houses and Dreamtrak.