Kristofer Ström is the man behind Ljudbilden & Piloten, a musical project based out of Malmö, Sweden. His style is one that fuses a multitude of genres – folk and ambient being the main two – with a presentation relying almost solely on acoustic sounds. One Hundred Fifty-Five has a certain charm to it that will be familiar to fans of bands like Efterklang, Detekivbyran, and Skyphone, all Scandinavian contemporaries, had they all been stripped down to a solo act and given a large amount of sedatives. Browsing through some published reviews, I'll often see his work compared with North American musicians, and although they are certainly free to draw such connections, I find that they largely miss the underlying spirit that draws these Scandinavian acts together. But perhaps that's a subject for another article all together.

One Hundred Fifty-Five was written over two years and Ström explains that the process largely revolved around inspiration – and inspiration can be found anywhere. It's evident that every track is special to him, and significant in the album, since each comes with its own artwork and has an accompanying video. Singling out any specific track, it becomes clear that Ström has hand crafted each with the utmost care and no detail was overlooked before the album went to the press. Herein lies the albums' great success: every track is an absolute joy to experience, and a valued listener could spend hours discovering the joys and nuances to be found hidden within the different layers. Indeed, Ström accesses a variety of instruments on this release in a move not dissimilar to Aaron Martin, but with an understandably less experimental effect. One Hundred Fifty-Five may have been constructed in a rather experimental manner, but the music itself is a pleasing, easy listen that doesn't outwardly stress the mind. There's a lot of different ways the album can be enjoyed, whether you want to go down the rabbit hole and witness Ström’s intricate working or merely enjoy it on an empirical level; both are quite valid and successful.

One Hundred Fifty-Five progresses there's less excitement to behold each song. The album clocks in just under an hour, but with fifteen tracks in total, few of them break the five-minute mark and the music begins to sound routine and trivial on the "back nine," so to speak. A few things could have aided this hindrance. Even though Ström does utilize a large instrument chest, few of them really take a dominating role in the mix. Things are mainly driven by guitar and piano (or something similar), with others just providing the fine lining around them. It'd be great to see some of the other instruments (such as the trumpet) come in and lead the proceeding for awhile. Secondly, the mood remains very sublime for the entire album, which infrequently changes its pace and just allows it all to soak in. While this is not always troublesome, here it adds to the blandness factor. Lastly, Ström seems to have restrained himself into shorter tracks, which I think limits the creativity of his music. Understandably, the inspirational theme of the album doesn't lend itself to long tracks (which must be properly composed and planned), but I think he could have retained the spirit of the album by taking the inspiration pieces and later expanding upon them, making them better and grander in the process.

What Ström does give the listener is a humble album that is great for relaxing and enjoying the moment. It is an introspective piece that was constructed in an introspective manner, and surely will be appreciated by a variety of music fans. One Hundred Fifty-Five is a solid debut which lays down a path for greater things to come.

-Lee Whitefield