Taken by Trees

Having served as the group's enigmatic, melancholy frontwoman for over a decade, Victoria Bergsman left the Concretes in 2006 following the release of the group's sophomore album, In Colour. "We'd started to lose our playfulness," she said in an interview with Plan B Magazine's Everett True. "It had become too much of a business." Her departure also came on the heels of the much-hyped release of "Young Folks," the first single from Peter Bjorn and John's third album, which featured Bergsman as a guest vocalist. Bergsman didn't waste any time following her split with the Concretes. Adopting the name Taken by Trees, she recorded four songs ("Tell Me," "Too Young," "Lost and Found," and "Hours Pass Like Centuries") with PB&J's Bj÷rn Yttling and made them available online in the fall of 2006. The new recordings found Bergsman abandoning theConcretes' sprightly sound in lieu of a style of somber, stripped-down twee that put her in league with Camera Obscura and El Perro del Mar. Taken by Trees' first full-length, "Open Field," was released on Rough Trade in 2007. Several new songs, including a cover of Guns N' Roses' "Sweet Child of Mine," were available via Taken by Trees' MySpace site in early 2008. For the next Taken by Trees' album, Bergsman wanted to try something different so she and recording engineer, Andreas S÷derstr÷m, traveled to Pakistan to record with local musicians. The resulting album, East of Eden, was released in 2009. ~ Margaret Reges, Rovi...

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