Darkplace is an anonymous band that has recently emerged on the music scene, set to release their debut album 'About the End of the World' in the autumn of 2023. Their music is rooted in post punk, but incorporates a variety of other genres in their sound. The concept behind the album is centred around a grim future, or perhaps present, where the world is depicted through digital paintings in the accompanying music videos. The imagery is inspired by the bleak landscape of Stockholm's Västerort, but with a unique and imaginative twist.

The debut single 'Arken över Hesselby' translates to 'The Ark Over Hesselby', pointing towards an alternative version of the Stockholm suburb "Hässelby". It's video shows us a familiar cityscape, haunted by an unknown presence watching form the sky. Its successor 'Fearmonger', transports us to another part of the same daunting universe, where we bare witness to the fate of a lone fot soldier as he faces with the ominous Ark. Third single 'Cars' moves on to the story of a man travelling north, following cryptic messages written on highway signs that mysteriously only shows up in the blast of his headlights. Is he the only one that can see and follow the trail?

Now, the story continues and the plot thickens with forth single 'This Is Loud' , bringing the story to a a full circle. Back to the beguinning, and Hesselby. The artist gives us a sneak peek into the new chapter with this cryptic message:

"I Couldn’t go out anymore, I didn’t feel safe. It was all connected, I don't know how but we all knew it was part of something bigger. In secret forums we discussed. We knew what it ment, the world was ending. Is it possible to survive this? Will we all go mad? Nowhere is safe."

Most of the instrumental songs on 'About the End of the World' were written with a specific dramaturgy and story in mind, which shows in the cinematic short movie-like music videos. Darkplace gives us an intriguing insight to their creative process. "The first idea for an animation was Arken Över Hesselby. We started creating the art before we had the music, so the piece is written as a soundtrack to the animation."

The art is a multi layered process that involve photography, sculpting, oli painting, digital editing and animation. Darkplace explains: "For structures, Nomad Sculpt is used to form it, then the motives are exported in the specific angle each scene requires and is imported into Procreate to be painted there. We use oil paintbrushes and paint over the photo. It is layers upon layers and it gets messy. Exporting gets even messier since we want depth in the scenes and need to export them in layered depths. A few scenes in this project have been frame by frame animated as well. This projekt has taken almost 2 years so far, so we try to kept it to a minimal."

It comes as no surprise that Darkplace is about far more than just releasing excellent music. It is an art project that seeks to explore and comment on the state of the world through audio and visuals. As a new and enigmatic force in the music industry, Darkplace is sure to turn heads with their innovative approach to creating art.

'This Is Loud' will be released via the Stockholm based indie label Icons Creating Evil Art, streamable on all major platforms on September 15th, 2023.