Sandy Mouche is a Swedish band from

Lund Lund (, ;"Lund"
(US) and ) is a city in the provinces of Sweden, province of Scania, southern Swed ...

Skåne County Skåne County ( ), sometimes referred to as Scania County or just Scania in English, is the southernmost Counties of Sweden, county, or , of Sweden, mostly corresponding to the traditional Provinces of Sweden, province of Scania. It borders th ...

. It consists of songwriter and singer couple Martinique and

Helena Josefsson Helena Marianne Josefsson (born 23 March 1978) is a Swedish singer and songwriter. She is the lead vocalist in the band Sandy Mouche and has collaborated with Per Gessle, Roxette, Arash Labaf, The Ark and various other Swedish musical proje ...

, and brothers Per (drums) and Ola (guitar) Blomgren. For live shows, they bring in a bassist and a pianist. They sing in English and French.

History

Formation

Sandy Mouche was formed in autumn 2001. Helena and Martinique were on holiday in

Crete Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...

, Greece, with Per (who had played with Helena in other bands for six years) and his girlfriend, Hanna. Martinique played his song, "A Year" for the group. It was then that they collectively decided to form a band.

The E.P. (2003) and ''White Lucky Dragon'' (2004)

The band recorded demos in Per's bedroom, and in a studio along with Danyal Taylan, who would play the bass from then point until 2004. Sandy Mouche recorded and released an EP, which they sent to producer

Christoffer Lundquist Carl Christoffer Lundquist (born 16 January 1970) is a Sweden, Swedish musician and producer. He was once in the band Brainpool (band), Brainpool, where he started as a bass player and backing vocalist, but moved to play both the bass and the g ...

, whom the band felt to be "the perfect collaborator". Sandy Mouche decided they would release their first album, ''White Lucky Dragon'' (2004) on their own label, Magpie Music. ''White Lucky Dragon'' was released in Sweden and Japan.

''...and poems for the unborn'' (2006)

The album ''...and poems for the unborn'' was released in 2006. It was self-financed, with Playground Music Scandinavia and Junk Music handling the distribution. It was recorded and mixed over a 10-day period. Unlike the first album, the songwriters wrote separately for their second album, which resulted in a more diverse release than their debut, counting

ABBA ABBA ( ) were a Swedish pop group formed in Stockholm in 1972 by Agnetha Fältskog, Björn Ulvaeus, Benny Andersson, and Anni-Frid Lyngstad. They are one of the most popular and successful musical groups of all time, and are one of the List ...

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

disco Disco is a music genre, genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the late 1960s from the United States' urban nightclub, nightlife, particularly in African Americans, African-American, Italian-Americans, Italian-American, LGBTQ ...

pop Pop or POP may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Pop music, a musical genre Artists * POP, a Japanese idol group now known as Gang Parade * Pop! (British group), a UK pop group * Pop! featuring Angie Hart, an Australian band Album ...

and even

children's music Children's music or kids' music is music composed and performed for children. In European-influenced contexts this means music, usually songs, written specifically for a juvenile audience. The composers are usually adults. Children's music has hi ...

among its influences. According to the band, they made the kind of album they would like to buy themselves. Writing in ''

Östersunds-Posten ''Östersunds-Posten'', simply ''ÖP'', is a Swedish language local newspaper published in Östersund, Sweden. The paper has been in circulation since 1877. History and profile ''Östersunds-Posten'' was established in 1877. Its headquarters is ...

'' David Stark described the album as "very fragmented" and "sadly packaged" while a review in ''

Smålandsposten ''Smålandsposten'' is a local morning newspaper published in Växjö, Southern Sweden. Founded in 1866 it is one of the earliest newspapers in the country. History and profile ''Smålandsposten'' was established in 1866. The paper is based in ...

'' described the album as "easy to digest and easy to forget". ''

Svenska Dagbladet (, "The Swedish Daily News"), abbreviated SvD, is a daily List of Swedish newspapers, newspaper published in Stockholm, Sweden. History and profile The first issue of appeared on 18 December 1884. During the beginning of the 1900s the pap ...

'' were more positive, with a review by Dan Backman describing the album as "romantic, whimsical

soft rock Soft rock (also known as light rock or mellow rock) is a form of rock music that originated in the late 1960s in the United States and the United Kingdom which smoothed over the edges of singer-songwriter and pop rock, relying on simple, mel ...

''Glory and Grace'' (2013)

For several years after 2006, the band members mostly worked on solo projects.

released two solo albums, and toured with

Roxette Roxette is a Swedish pop rock duo originally consisting of Marie Fredriksson and Per Gessle, both of whom were already established musicians in Sweden prior to the band's formation. Fredriksson had released a number of successful solo albums, ...

. The band members also had several children, and struggled to find time for Sandy Mouche. However, after Per Blomgren constructed his own studio, the group met to work together on songs. In 2013, they released ''Glory and Grace''.

Since 2013

, the band has been largely inactive.

Critical reception

In a scathing 2007 review of one of Helena Josefsson's solo albums, ''

Göteborgs-Posten (), abbreviated GP, is a major Swedish language, Swedish-language daily newspaper published in Gothenburg, Sweden. History and profile was first published in 1813, but ceased publication in 1822. It re-appeared in 1850. Publication seven day ...

'' described Sandy Mouche as "a pop band, annoying in every way" and "the worst thing to come out of Scania since

spettekaka Spettekaka or spettkaka (''spiddekaga'' in native Scanian) is a local dessert of the southern parts of Sweden, chiefly in the province of Scania (Skåne) but also in Halland. It is an important part of the Scanian culinary heritage. The name mea ...

Discography

Albums

* ''Sandy Mouche'' (EP) (2003) * ''White Lucky Dragon'' (2004) (released in Sweden and Japan) * ''...and poems for the unborn'' (2006) (released in Sweden, Belgium and Australia) * ''Glory and Grace'' (2013)

Singles

* "Cherry Pie" (2003) (promo) * "C'est pas juste" (2004) (promo) * "Papillon" (2004) (promo) * "Une histoire" (2005) * "In the Sand" (2005) * "Spiderweb Suit" (2005) * "Papillon" (2006) (France promo) * "Evening Wake, Morning Flake" (2006) (to Belgian radio)

Music videos

* "Cherry Pie" (dir. Johan Tholsson) * "C'est pas juste" (dir. Per and Ola Blomgren) * "Papillon" (dir. Jeffry Rich)

References

External links

Official site for Sandy Mouche

Le Journal des Mouches - News about Helena, Sandy Mouche and Son of a Plumber
* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sandy Mouche Swedish musical quartets Swedish pop music groups Musical groups established in 2001 English-language musical groups from Sweden French-language musical groups from Sweden Musical groups from Lund