LEONARD COHEN -
THE SCANDINAVIAN REPORT

Various Artists

Sweden 2009

1. First We Take Manhattan – Cookies n Beans
2. Here It Is – Rebecka Törnkvist
3. If It Be Your Will – Moto Boy
4. Dansa mig till kärlekens slut (Dance Me To The End Of Love) – Jan Malmsjö
5. Ain´t No Cure For Love – Ane brun
6. Everybody Knows – Bo Sundström
7. Hey That´s No Way To Say Goodbye – Sara Isaksson
8. Sisters of Mercy – Lars Halapi
9. USA är redo för demokrati (Democracy) – Mikael Wiehe
10. Hallelujah – Anders Widmark
11. Bird On The Wire – Eva Dahlgren
12. In My Secret Life – Vidar & Peter
13. The Partisan – Jenny Wilson
14. Chelsea Hotel # 2 – Olle Ljungström
15. Waiting For The Miracle To Come – Sophie Zelmani
16. Suzanne – Christel Alsos

Producent: Lars Halapi
A&R: Lars "Billy" Hansson for Bolero Recordings
Label : Sony Music Sweden
Releasedate : September 30, 2009

A word from the producer:

On a distinctly grey day in January I got a call from AnR Lars ”Billy” Hansson. After about a minute of comparing the wheather in Stockholm and Skåne , and making sure our families were both well, he asked me: How about making a tribute album to Leonard Cohen?

I´ve always been a big fan of Cohens´ music and had two months earlier seen one of the best concerts in my life – Leonard Cohen in Göteborg. So, of course, my answer was yes.

So, how do you make a tribute album? Well, off course you need to find the right artist for the right song. Next step is to make it sound like one album. How do you achieve that? I had been thinking about this and also trying to find new ways to get presence and vibrance in recordings and I had an idea: One place, one time and one band.No safety net. The different artists would come one after another and sing their song. Lars Hansson liked the idea and we started to discuss singers and songs, studios and engineers, and budgets...

Eventually we agreed on a list of very fine Swedish and Norwegian artists and to our joy almost everyone were happy to come. Further more we settled for the 17-18 of August at Studio 4, Radiohuset, Stockholm. Lars and I continued to work on the planning and logistics and I contacted all the artists to discuss key, tempo,arrangement and vibe.

The C-day finally came. The plan was to record 19 songs in two days. This takes a lot of concentration from a lot of people. Singers, musicians, engineers. It also takes a lot of luck: One late airplane, two hours of computer problems and one artist not happy with the microphone could jeopardise the whole album. I can honestly say I´ve never been so tired, or musically happy, as when we finished the last song 9.30 pm on the 18th. Everybody involved had done their utmost to make this album come alive and the artists all brought their musicality, their personal interpretation, their concentration. And all this with high spirits and lot´s of generousity. I´m deeply grateful. And very proud over this album.

Lars Halapi, Puk Studios, August 22, 2009

Sound clips at YouTube
For more information, visit www.myspace.com/cohenscandinavianreport
You may order the album at www.bengans.se