In a forest in Småland – in the south of Sweden – the pair played a one-hour set just before The Embassy, which came to light via a story post shared by Karlsson on Instagram under his Hello Stranger! project.
A picture of Karlsson and Markstedt was also shared in a Air France Facebook group post along with a statement from one of the duo ‘who wish to remain anonymous this time.”
The statement reads: “It was super fun, even though we had technical issues and sound problems for about 30 minutes of the set. But Alexander Palmestål from Mythologen found the problem so the show could go on. The most important thing was that we managed to mix in birdsong between the tracks. And that we got free Bourdeaux wine during the gig.”
Palmeståhl previously collaborated with Karlsson on the artwork for Hello Stranger!’s EP Last Call (In This Lonely Town’s Only Nightclub); his third album Eurovision was released in June this year via Year0001.
via Instagram
The DJ set unofficially unites three of the seminal bands from the 00s Swedish underground; Fürst was also a co-founder of The Tough Alliance as well as the now defunct label Sincerely Yours.
Air France’s contribution to the early 00s music scene was brief but significant. Signed to XL for a time, a long player from Karlsson and Markstedt never emerged but their short-lived career saw the pair integral to a sound – and very-loosely-knit scene – that overlapped with the late 00s blog house and chillwave sound. The band announced their split in 2012, announcing the end via a post on their Tumblr. Their story is pretty well covered in our 2013 history of the band.
Karlsson debuted his Hello Stranger! project last summer and has continued to be active posting new music across the last 12 months. Posting on the Air France facebook page back then, he commented: “I couldn’t resist making music; it’s too much fun. But I can’t putting too much pressure on myself, so I will only release songs sporadically and just have fun. Four bad songs and a good one now and then? Hopefully, Henrik is joining me later on…”