Detektivbyrån ("The Detective Agency") was a Swedish

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that came to prominence in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mos ...

and

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

trio from

Karlstad Karlstad (, ) is the 20th-largest city in Sweden, the seat of Karlstad Municipality, the capital of Värmland County, and the largest city in the province Värmland in Sweden. The city proper had 67,122 inhabitants in 2020 with 97,233 inhabitan ...

. The group consisted of Anders "Flanders" Molin (

accordion Accordions (from 19th-century German language, German ', from '—"musical chord, concord of sounds") are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a Reed (mou ...

music box A music box (American English) or musical box (British English) is an automatic musical instrument in a box that produces Musical note, musical notes by using a set of pins placed on a revolving cylinder (geometry), cylinder or disc to pluck ...

), Martin "MacGyver" Molin (

glockenspiel The glockenspiel ( ; or , : bells and : play) or bells is a percussion instrument consisting of pitched aluminum or steel bars arranged in a Musical keyboard, keyboard layout. This makes the glockenspiel a type of metallophone, similar to the v ...

, traktofon, toy

piano A piano is a keyboard instrument that produces sound when its keys are depressed, activating an Action (music), action mechanism where hammers strike String (music), strings. Modern pianos have a row of 88 black and white keys, tuned to a c ...

Theremin The theremin (; originally known as the ætherphone, etherphone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox) is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the performer (who is known as a thereminist). It is named aft ...

), Jon Nils Emanuel Ekström (

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

sound box A sound box or sounding box (sometimes written soundbox) is an open chamber in the body of a musical instrument which modifies the sound of the instrument, and helps transfer that sound to the surrounding air. Objects respond more strongly to vibr ...

, small bells), and later on, Marcus Sjöberg (drums). The three members grew up in the city of

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

, located in

Värmland County Värmland County () is a county or '' län'' in west central Sweden. It borders the Swedish counties of Dalarna, Örebro and Västra Götaland, as well as the Norwegian counties of Østfold, Akershus and Innlandet to the west. The title of Duke ...

, but they did not form a band until they had moved to Gothenburg in 2005. The usage of more unusual instruments such as the accordion was inspired both by its prominent use in the soundtrack for ''

Amélie ''Amélie'' (, , ) is a 2001 French-language romantic comedy film directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet. Written by Jeunet with Guillaume Laurant, the film is a whimsical depiction of contemporary Parisian life, set in Montmartre. It tells the story ...

'' as well as musical traditions in Värmland. As the band also played as street musicians there was originally also a requirement to have portable instruments such as the glockenspiel. Between 2006 and 2008 the band toured extensively and also participated in several Swedish radio and TV shows including a program at

MTV Europe MTV Global (formerly MTV Europe) is the international version of the American TV channel MTV as 24-hour music video and entertainment pay television network officially launched on 1 August 1987 as part of the worldwide MTV network. Initia ...

. On 3 September 2008 Detektivbyrån released their first full-length album, '' Wermland''. The band was nominated for two

Grammis The Grammis (sometimes referred to as the Swedish Grammy Awards) are music awards presented annually to musicians and songwriters in Sweden. The oldest Swedish music awards were instituted as a local equivalent of the Grammy Awards given in t ...

awards, as newcomer of the year and folk music of the year in 2009. In addition they were also nominated for an award at Manifestgalan as the best live act of 2008. In February 2009, Jon Nils Emanuel Ekström left the band, Marcus Sjöberg took his place, leaving the band still working on the future album tentatively named "Beyond". Ekström had previously been playing drums, sound box, small bells on the band's albums and concerts. The band had also recently been contributing to the soundtrack of the American film ''

Tenure Tenure is a type of academic appointment that protects its holder from being fired or laid off except for cause, or under extraordinary circumstances such as financial exigency or program discontinuation. Academic tenure originated in the United ...

''. In August 2010, the band was dissolved and clearly stated on their official website that they would not make any more music or live performances under the name Detektivbyrån. In September 2012, Martin announced that he was producing a new album. His new band Wintergatan released their first album in 2013. The new band includes Marcus Sjöberg as well.

Discography

Albums

* '' E18'' (2008) * '' Wermland'' (2008)

EPs

* '' Hemvägen'' (2006)

Singles

* '' Detektivbyrån - Hemstad'' (Split 7" vinyl) (2007) * '' Lyckans Undulat'' (2007)

References

Folktronica musicians Swedish electronic music groups Musical groups from Värmland County Culture in Karlstad {{Sweden-band-stub