Chain Wallet is Stian Iversen, Christian Line and Frode Boris, a trio from Bergen, Norway. Despite only having been in existence for little over a year, the band have garnered a fair amount of attention through a couple of great singles and European tours and recently signed with Oslo-based label Jansen Plateproduksjon in preparation for the release of their self-titled debut album.
The record, which explores “themes of betrayal, idleness and crushed dreams”, charts the existential breakdown of an troubled protagonist, delving into what Boris describes as “his self-indulgent pity, gradual loss of touch with reality and his forlorn attempts on returning to normal life”. As you might expect, such a record is fractured and pretty and strange, almost transcendentally rich yet underpinned with a certain nagging sadness, the vague subconscious knowledge that reality is waiting, unchanged, for their return. As Boris continues:
“The abrupt disintegration unveils interesting tensions between urgency and inertia. The album is about fragmented memories, unfulfilled ambitions and the quiet whisper of a stranger”
‘Muted Colours’ is the first single from Chain Wallet. As with much of their music to date, the song occupies a strange space between good-time pop escapism and melancholy shoegaze. The shimmering haze adds a certain sense of nostalgia for times past and dissolves the distinction between happy and sad so that they conjoin into one dense, glittering fog.
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Chain Wallet is due for release on the 7th October via Jansen Plateproduksjon. In the meantime, you can check out their previous singles via the Chain Wallet Soundcloud page.
Photo by Synne Sofi Bønes