He’s the new paparazzi. He’s in Sweden right now and he just emailed me some new pictures. I’ve known Ryan Koopmans since we were young. He’s from Victoria, too. I don’t have a fetish about people from Victoria. I just think a lot of talented people have come from there, like Steve Nash, for example.

SPONSOR

I don’t why I never got into the world of Swedish movies. I love everything else Swedish: indie pop, IKEA, H&M, smorgasbord. I know everyone has heard of Let The Right One In by now, but it’s opened my eyes to the world of Swedish cinematography.

A beautiful and dark movie, the shots are just breathtaking and so tastefully done. I think it’s by far my favorite movie of the last few years. Don’t even bother seeing the remake. I can’t believe that’s even allowed!

My work is inspired by capturing those moments when I find that natural ‘special light. These are usually moments from my everyday life, or travels. This series, called Summer’s Almost Gone, was born out of a trip to Gothenburg during Summer where I was really impacted by the light, the people, and their relationship with nature.

Beer seems to be on our mind lately. So too does spring, making this flashy, lime green brew exactly what we’re craving. Out of Sweden, comes Spring Edition: a mango, lime cider.

Designed by Stockholm-based creative agency, Division, these fabulously green bottles rock a sleepy, slouchy bear just awakened from hibernation in time to welcome spring. We’re on the hunt for more information (like, how can we get our hands on some?!) and will be sure to update accordingly. In the meantime, look lovingly towards these sweet bottles, just as you do the end of winter.

Street artist Ekta, who is currently based in Gothenburg, Sweden, has a pretty distinctive style consisting of huge fields of colors, often not separated by outlines, making for elusive and mysterious, yet distinctly figurative forms.

SPONSOR

Oh wow. Bahnhof AB, the hosting company responsible for keeping the under siege Wikileaks site up, is located in a futuristically renovated cold war nuclear bunker thirty metres below Sweden’s White Mountain. [Photos by Jann Lipka/Rex Features]

Carl Kleiner is a still life photographer based in Stockholm, Sweden. This series was shot for Ikea’s new baking book, Hembakat är Bäst (Homemade Is Best). Food styling by Evelina Bratell.

Good Ol’ Sailor vodka organic vodka looks just like what you might expect to find tattooed on the sleeve of an old sea dog. It should come as no surprise to you then that the bad arrrse packaging was designed by tattoo artist Mattias Brodén who made the eco-friendly PET bottles encasing this lethal liquid never look sexier.

Decked out with skulls, vixen-ish mermaids and windblown ships, Good Ol’ Sailor vodka tempts you to smash your prissy wine glass, swig deeply from this new bottle, and start cursing obscenely in a rough brogue while swaggering about the bar. Still, touted to be both fruity and spicy, this first-ever organic Swedish vodka is more likely to be found on the shelves of stylish nightclubs than the back pocket of a true salty dog. Nonetheless, it doesn’t mean you can’t pretend, so grab that flagon and drink up me hearties, yo-ho!

Polish photographer Chris Maluszynski studied physics and electrical engineering, history of art, history of photography and visual communication at the University of Linköping, Sweden, and Sorbonne, Paris. His professional career began in 1995 and he has since worked for most major Swedish newspapers, including staff positions at Dagens Nyheter, Svenska Dagbladet and Göteborgs-Posten. This work is from his series, Las Vegas Carpets.

SPONSOR

Next time you feel like you need to get away from it all, disappear into Sweden’s new Tree Hotel. That’s right, literally disappear, into an invisible mirror cube hung from a tree trunk that only birds can see. The quirky eco-hotel launched this month with six rooms designed by five different architects, transforming the idea of a Tree House into a unique traveling experience. Each room has taken incredible measures not to impact the surrounding environment, with the mirror room being coated in an infrared film visible only to birds — to stop them from crashing into it.

Pieter over at Today and Tomorrow doesn’t like the ridiculously goofy and saccharine music of Swedish electronic act Familjen, but right now it’s making me grin. I agree, though, that album art for their (his) latest album Manskligheten is pretty amazing and more complex than the music itself. The artwork was the result of a collaboration between photographer Erik Wahlstrom and the design studio Bergen.

Linn Olofsdotter’s illustration work is so complex, so colourful, so damn alluring, you just want to slink inside of it and explore the myriad of shapes and textures.

We love this remix by Cambridge’s electronic-pop sensation Passion Pit of Sweden’s Shout Out Louds’ first single, Fall Hard. Evidently so do Pitchfork who described it as being ‘synthed up’. Indeed! We have a free download in our Music Download section. Listen to the Passion Pit remix of Shout Out Louds and then download it!

SPONSOR

I’m mesmerised by the work of Swedish photography duo Waldemar and Max. Nostalgic colour, thoughtful compositions and frozen subjects via timely slow shutter speeds are all wonderful techniques that shape their fashion photography. Waldemar and Max just shot the series Love in Vain for Fault Magazine this month.

Swedish pop star Robyn has done her first ever remix for another artist: El Perro del Mar’s Change of Heart. The original single was taken from El Perro Del Mar’s album, Love Is Not Pop, of which she says: ‘Shortly after having finished touring with my second album From the Valley to the Stars, I started writing new songs. For some reason all the songs were about love, and in particular, that of the doomed kind. I’d spent some bad times in New York and some good times in Paris and both these cities have made a great imprint on this album and my current outlook on love. I’ve decided to call it Love Is Not Pop — the songs on the album are all pop songs and they are all about love. But naturally, it is not all as simple as that. As much as pop can be love and vice versa, I’d like to believe that love goes so much deeper than a pop song’. [Read a Secret Playlist by El Perro del Mar]

Swedish rock band Bob Hund have released their latest single Fantastiskt (Fantastic) on a once-off print vinyl record that can only get played up to thirty times. The band then enlisted Martin Kann Design to design a suitable casing. So taking it literally he put it in a record player and etched lyrics to the song on the case. The record and the player were then listed on eBay and sold for a staggering US$3,650 to become the most expensive record ever in Sweden.

In 2006, Fredrik Kjellgren and Joakim Kaminsky won the International Competition for their vision for a new dance hall in Falsterbo, Sweden. Now the building, known as the Mirage, is to be inaugurated. The design placed considerable emphasis on creating ‘spaces with extraordinary acoustic qualities. A custom made damping wall was designed in collaboration with an acoustic expert, consisting of a black acoustic felt covered by white wooden boards of various dimensions’.

SPONSOR

In the Spring of 2006, a seven-year email correspondence culminated in the meeting of Luke Jackson and Magnus Börjeson. Jackson had long been a devoted fan of two of the Swedish musician’s former bands: Beagle and Favorita, and the two songwriters finally met in Paris where Börjeson was mid-tour playing in The Cardigans. By the end of the weekend, Jackson had accepted an invitation to record in Sweden, which he took up in January 2008. He set to work in the studio with Magnus on bass and Christoffer’s Brainpool bandmate Jens Jansson on drums. Upon his return to London, he sent the rough mixes of the songs to renowned London-based string arranger Robert Kirby (who has orchestrated works by Nick Drake, Elvis Costello, and Elton John). Kirby loved the songs and offered to write orchestrations for the album and accompany Jackson to Sweden to conduct the necessary recording sessions with nine players from Malmö’s Opera Orchestra. It is the collision of these two worlds which makes his album, And Then Some, so compelling. Densely layered guitars and vocal harmonies fuse with sweeping string lines, none of which ever draw the ear too far from what lies at the heart of Jackson’s music.

This remarkable construction is located in the Swedish village of Jukkasjärvi and is built entirely from scratch every year. It features 10,000 tonnes of ice from the nearby Torne River, and 30,000 tonnes of snow, covering more than 30,000 square feet in total. Oh, it even has its own ice chapel. But be sure to bring your winter woollens. It could get a little, errr, chilly at night.

When it comes to toys, these guys really know what they’re doing. Playsam is one of my favorite toy companies. They’re based in Sweden and they make extremely polished, minimal toys for children. Their designs are classic and extremely expensive, but well worth it. When I have kids, I’ll spoil them with these.