Vanbot – “Close Enough (Ulan Bator)”
With a full album scrapped and a trip booked to ride the Trans-Siberian Railway, Swedish electro pop musician Ester Ideskog decided that her next record as Vanbot had to come from a wholly organic place that would help alleviate production pressures. Today, Vanbot shares the results of her journey with the single “Close Enough (Ulan Bator)” off of her forthcoming album Siberia, out in April. The isolation made for an effortlessly stunning creation of simple backbeats and youthful synth loops. More refined and direct, the song allows the emotions to flow out unimpeded by massive walls of electronic sound. The longing is real and uncluttered as she sings, “I’ll love you if you let me/ I can’t get any closer.”
Vanbot gave insight on her trip and her experience in Ulan Bator that inspired the song:
After five days on the Trans-Siberian Railway we made a stop in Mongolia and drove four hours straight into the wilderness where the nomads live. We spent the nights there in nomad tents, and spent the days watching the wild horses, sheep and cows roaming freely about with magnificent eagles flying high up in the air above their heads. The overall symbiosis between man, animal and nature made a huge impression on me and these days held some of the absolute highlights of the journey. Back in Ulan Bator we met with two traditional Mongolian musicians and had a session together. It was so exciting and at the same time almost impossible; not only because of the language difficulties, but also because of our completely different musical backgrounds. Despite that, we found some unexpected connecting points when playing together and this song is based on recorded samples from that session.
Listen to the track below, and followed by the video for previous single “Collide (Krasnoyarsk).”
Tracklist:
01 “Not That Kind (Moscow)”
02 “Stay With Me (Perm)”
03″ Yekaterinburg”
04 “On The Fly (Omsk)”
05 “Collide (Krasnoyarsk)”
06 “Hard To Get Used To (Baikal)”
07 “Fiction (Listvyanka)”
08 “Louder (Ulan-Ude)”
09 “Wasted (Terelj)”
10 “Close Enough (Ulan Bator)”
11 “Stuck In Between (Yak – Moscow)”
Siberia is out 4/7 via Ester’s own label Lisch Recordings.
