Amanda will be supporting First Aid Kit on the rest of their European tour. All dates here.

Never once an ocean
could hold me on its shore
standing calm with all its motion
with all the movement of its flow
cause I know way back in the distance
all the safer sorrows burned
the ones with no intent to drown you
the ones where nothing’s to be learned

so now i’m headin’ down a back road
the one that no one really takes
except for me now to be nowhere
when that early morning breaks

Now I’m dancin’ with the mad girls
the ones who sin out by the town
who were brought up by bell towers
and always nurtured by its sound
I heard them sing out in their language
already when I was still free
oh God I thought I heard the angels
what kind of fool’d you put in me?

‘Cause now I’m tied up by a back road
the one that no one really takes
except for me now to be nowhere
when that early morning breaks

They sure won’t let me leave this summer
no no no, and they won’t let me go this fall
and with the likelihood of winter
they’ll take the heat out of us all

And now i’m takin’ off the back road, y’know
the one that no one really takes
except for me now to be nowhere
when that early morning breaks

You can discuss this news on our forum.

You can buy the track now on iTunes or Amazon as a digital download, or download for free at Rolling Stone, that also has a new interview with Kristian. And if you want to discuss the song, head to our forum.

The new album “There’s No Leaving Now” is also now available for pre-order at Dead Oceans. A deluxe bundle includes the record on vinyl and cd, two posters and the “1904″ 7” in limited edition with the exclusive b-side “Cycles”.

This is the cover of “1904″:

Here’s the full list of shows:

04-OCT Madrid (Spain) - Joy Slava – forum
05-OCT Barcelona (Spain) - Casino de l’Aliancia – forum
08-OCT Zurich (Switzerland) - Kaufleuten – forum
09-OCT Torino (Italy) - Spazio 2011 – forum
10-OCT Roma (Italy) - Chiesa Evangelica Metodista – forum
11-OCT Ravenna (Italy) - Almagia – forum
12-OCT Brescia (Italy) - Foyer Teatro Grande – forum
14-OCT Vienna (Austria) – WUK – forum
15-OCT Berlin (Germany) - Heimathafen – forum
17-OCT Hamburg (Germany) - Kampnagel – forum
18-OCT Cologne (Germany) - E-Werk – forum
19-OCT Zwolle (Netherlands) - Theater Odeon de Spiegel – forum
20-OCT Utrecht (Netherlands) - MC Vredenburg – forum
23-OCT Bristol (UK) - Colston Hall – forum
24-OCT Dublin (Ireland) - Vicar Street – forum
25-OCT Belfast (Northern Ireland) - Mandela Hall – forum
27-OCT Edinburgh (UK) - Picturehouse – forum
28-OCT Manchester (UK) – The Ritz – forum
29-OCT Brighton (UK) - St Bartholmew Church – forum

For more info on venues and tickets, please visit the Gigs section on our forum. For a full list of dates, including gigs and festivals in the summer, visit our Live page.

And make sure you also listen to last night’s supporting band, The Pole Siblings. They’re from Finland, and definitely worth checking out.

The tracklist includes two known songs: the title track “There’s No Leaving Now“, played on tour last year with a backup band, and the already acclaimed “Little Brother”, recently performed at his two South African shows.

And for the first time in his career as The Tallest Man On Earth, Kristian won’t be the only musician on the record. Indeed, he is accompanied on the record by bass player Mats Winkvist and drummer Niclas Nordin who join him on a few tracks, like “Revelation Blues” and “1904″.

Here’s the full tracklist:

1. To Just Grow Away
2. Revelation Blues
3. Leading Me Now
4. 1904
5. Bright Lanterns
6. There’s No Leaving Now
7. Wind And Walls
8. Little Brother
9. Criminals
10. On Every Page

To discuss the new album, join us on the forum here.

A few selected tour dates have also been announced (and more will be added soon):

05/31/12 Stockholm, SE - Sondra Teatern
06/01/12 Stockholm, SE - Sondra Teatern
06/20/12 New York, NY - Town Hall
07/03/12 London, UK - Hackney Empire
07/04/12 Amsterdam, NL - Paradiso
07/06/12 Berlin, DE - Lido
07/29/12 Newport, RI - Newport Folk Festival BUY TICKETS
08/17/12 Hasselt, BE - Pukkelpop

More info on Record Store Day here and if you want to find a partecipating store near you, check here.

He serenaded the audience with a setlist comprised of a mixture of both old and new songs. Some highlights from both concerts can be found now on youtube: Love Is All, Troubles Will Be Gone, Thrown Right At Me (with Amanda), Where Do My Bluebird Fly, and a previously un-heard song titled “Little Brother” which will feature on his third studio album due for release sometime this year.

You can share your thoughts on the new song in our forum.

Some good photos from Cape Town can be found here (by Adriaan Louw and Andrew Berry).

Videos as follows:

More info and comments here.

UPDATE February 3, 2012

Idiot Wind (aka Amanda Bergman, who often plays with The Tallest Man On Earth onstage) just performed on På Spåret too. This is her amazing rendition of The Waterboys’ The Whole Of The Moon, followed by a cover of The Doors’ The End:

Kristian and Amanda started working on the soundtrack in 2010, and the result is seven compositions, mostly songs and one or two instrumental tracks. “In 2009 we were looking for unsigned singer-songwriters with special personality”, director Gorki Glaser-Muller tells us, “and I had spent entire days listening to lots of artists, mostly Swedish, mostly women. Then I got introduced to Amanda’s music by one of the producers of the movie, Erika Malmgren, who had seen her live in a small venue in Gothenburg. I loved the music right away and started listening over and over. Her stage name at the time was Hajen and she only had a few hundred plays on MySpace, but was already growing in popularity among music lovers and critics. We contacted her and she gave us some new material, and not long after that, we asked her to write the score for the movie. She was the one who invited Kristian”. When asked about his favourite song, Glaser-Muller replies he has several favourite songs, “but Amanda’s Scapegoat is definitely a favourite, then a song titled There Will Be More and Kristian’s When You Harvest“.

On a personal note, Glaser-Muller tells us he’s not always been a folk kind of guy. “You see, I’m from Chile and was born after the Chilean 9/11. The short story is the government of the US supported a coup d’état and a fascist dictatureship followed. So, this kind of music sounded very “yankie” to me, bringing a negative feeling. Of course you could say I had a prejudice against the music genre, but I think it was those political events that marked me culturally in a very bad way. Then I grew up, moved to Sweden and got a wider taste for music, but it was Amanda and Kristian’s kind of music that truly opened up my ears.

Gorki Glaser-Muller, director of "Once a year"

I think it was tough for them at first, having to write songs that could get along with the images and fit the movie perfectly, but they really got into it. My heart gets warm when I think about this wonderful experience and what it meant to me to work with a music like this. I love Kristian and Amanda’s energy, and their sincerity towards themselves and the movie”.

Is there any plans to release the soundtrack in the future? “Well, at first the movie was important as a whole, and the music had to be part of it, it wasn’t supposed to have an importance of its own. But since the songs are really good, they do have an importance and are entitled to an existence. So yes, we talked about distributing the music somehow, along with the songs that are not included in the film. We’re still thinking about it, discussing and dreaming. As for the movie, we are planning a world wide theater distribution, but we’ll start with festivals”.
The first appointment is at the Goteborg International Film Festival (GIFF):
- Sunday, January 29 – 15.00
- Tuesday, January 31 – 19.30
- Friday, February 3 – 10.00
More info and tickets here.

This is the teaser trailer for the movie, with Kristian’s previously unheard song “Some Will Spare You”. Another teaser is available here, with Amanda’s song “Scapegoat”.

Once A Year is also on Facebook.
If you want to discuss the movie and the soundtrack with us, head to the forum: ImpossibleTrees.com Forum

Friday 10 February 2012
Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC)
Cape Town

Saturday 11th February 2012
The Mandela at Joburg Theatre
Johannesburg

Tickets are available via Webtickets & Joburg theatre as follows:
Cape Town – http://www.webtickets.co.za/
Joburg – http://www.joburgtheatre.com

“The Tallest Man On Earth is an artist that we personally enjoy very much. It is incredible to see how his music and popularity has spread through mostly word of mouth in South Africa. We can’t wait to introduce one of the best live acts to South African fans for this first time”, says Blaise Janichon from Your Friends, the promoters of the South African Tour.

As this are seated performances there is a fixed capacity, book early to avoid disappointment!