FADER PREMIERE
1987 is Stockholm's Victor Holmberg, first known to me as one half of the production duo Montauk. Most of his time with the new alias has been dedicated to production, with slow-pulsing remixes of Sportsman, Postiljonen and Alice Boman—“Michelle” is just his second solo track, with long-tail synths like one big swelling wave that, once it lands in the song's second half, froths and chops up into a dance track that feels reluctant for anyone to be enjoying life so much as to dance. Below the song, 1987 offers a stanza of the poem "Idyll" by Karin Boye and a few words about "Michelle"—both appear in their original Swedish, then translated.
Stream: 1987, "Michelle"
Karin Boye, "Idyll"
Nu sluter sig vardagens rymd kring oss två, lik en len
lätt dimma.
Är du rädd att bli fånge, är du rädd att drunkna i det gråa?
Var inte rädd: i vardagens innersta,
i allt livs hjärta, brinner med stilla nynnande lågor en djup, hemlig helg.
Now the space of the everyday closes around us two, like a soft, gentle mist.
Are you afraid of becoming a prisoner, are you afraid of drowning in the greyness?
Do not be afraid: in the everyday’s innermost depth,
in the heart of all life,
there burns with quietly humming flames a deep, secret festival.
1987
"Mitt skrivbord är prydligt ordnat. Mapparna är tydligt namngivna. Jag har valt en ny bakgrundsbild. Drake nedsjunken vid ett bord framför en kandelaber och en uggla, båda av guld. Jag vill att den här låten ska skimra som kandelabrar av guld och samtidigt skära djupa sår. Jag gömmer mig bakom svartvita fotografier, men är livrädd att drunkna i det gråa. Hoppas ni gillar den."
"My desk is neatly organized. Folders are clearly named. I have selected a new wallpaper. Drake slumped at a table in front of a chandelier and an owl, both of gold. I want this song to shimmer like a gold chandelier and simultaneously cut deep wounds. I hide behind black and white photographs, but I'm terrified of drowning in the gray. Hope you like it."