Label: Concentric Circles
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album,
Country: US
Released: 2026
Genre: Jazz, Pop, Classical
Style: Avant-garde Jazz, Bossa Nova, Contemporary Jazz, Art Rock, Avantgarde, Sunshine Pop
Endlessly uplifting, gorgeous sunshine art-pop from Swedish librarian cum insanely talented multi-instrumentalist Sternpost. Who said the underground had to be glum??
Sternpost’s 2023 hit Ulrika felt like something of an awakening, an open door to a vivid and unbelievably lush sound world that was totally at odds with its humble home-recorded nature. Back on Portland outpost Concentric Circles, unworld.afterpop takes our hand again and guides us into a dreamworld of charming avant-pop, drawing influence from Prefab Sprout’s cinematic epic ‘I Trawl The Megahertz’ alongside Brazilian author Clarice Lispector’s seminal consciousness stream Aqua Viva with added Rob Wyatt, Art Bears and Aksak Maboul thrown in for good measure. Underpinned by gloriously sumptious melodies and bewilderingly ambitious song-structures, the whole thing unspools like a warm-breeze, meandering between radiant bossa-pop to elegant avant-jazz lavishly imbued with pinpoint attention to detail. Sometimes it’s simple, music should occasionally just make you feel good - which this does in abundance. A joy it is to witness such talent and humility in equal measure with irrefutably catchy songs that’ll stick like glue. (Mint / New - shops pls for wholesale)
Malmo, Sweden’s Sternpost returns to Concentric Circles with “unworld.afterpop.” Following on the heels of the much loved “Ulrika,” the new album from Sternpost (AKA multi-instrumentalist Petter Herbertsson) shimmers with immersive, cinematic arrangements that sound like they could have only come from a dream.
Taking inspiration from Paddy McAloon of Prefab Sprout’s “I Trawl the Megahertz” and “A Breath of Life” by Brazilian author Clarice Lispector, with some bits of Van Dyke Parks and Art Bears thrown in for good measure, it is apparent from the start that “unworld.afterpop” is no scrappy DIY affair. The songs are alive with an unbelievably lush and warm production quality, belying their home-recorded origins. Not content to simply rest on his laurels and repeat himself from release to release, “unworld.afterpop” sits at the meeting point between Herbertsson’s more overtly pop structured group Testbild! (four of whose members appear here), and Sternpost’s explorations into harmonic texture and countermelody.
Albums this richly ambitious, detailed and dare we say “mature” feel almost out of step with modern music, having more in common with grand late 60s or early 70s productions, when producers working in a “pop” context were more likely to stack layers in the studio, creating mini orchestras of sound. Most importantly, nothing here feels superfluous or unnecessary, with every detail and instrument simply being exactly where it should be.
Concentric Circles is incredibly honored to present new recordings from Sternpost, with a release that reminds you that sometimes a really good, fully formed album is the best way to experience music. Immersive and transportive yet also inherently catchy, “unworld.afterpop” is ample evidence that we are in the graces of a thoroughly gifted songwriter at the top of his craft.
Tracklist
1. Pentewan
2. The Trees and I
3. This Hibernation
4. From the Mouths of Stones
5. Charcot
6. My Silent Dream 02:55
7. Adrift
8. Soft Like Swans
9. Baxter
10. Distant and Radiant
11. Every Other Building
12. Phantasmal City
13. Mirny
14. 100 Days
15. Part Time Ripples
16. The Report
