Press information: A-Stream Productions

Distribution: Phonofile

‘A Traveler’ album press release

‘A Traveler’ press image

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1. A Traveler

The waves were blue and white,
the year was nineteen eighty nine.
I was near the great abyss,
my father said: “don’t take that risk”.

Yet fifty years before
he stood there on the same shore
and dreamed away to a far-off place,
a land of long forgotten fame.

I said: “I’m here, come out and play”
but he was lightyears away.
He said: “Don’t run, you’re still so young,
for you the journey’s just begun”.

In time, he was a traveler.
He explored the corners of the world
to break the seals, the mysteries
of the Mediterranean sea.

I said: “I’m here, don't try to speak.
Oh father you're too weak”
He said: “I’m proud, don’t shed your tears,
just make the most of your fifty years”.

His hair was grey and white
the year when we would say goodbye.
The time we had was brief
but enough to see he was without grief.

Beneath fluorescent lights
we spoke of what we couldn’t fight,
and I think he could accept his fate,
that his life had made a change.

A traveler, in books and words,
he found his home, his family.
A traveler, in dust and earth,
he found his soul, he found his peace.

2. A Soldier And A Fool

I think you have a friend you haven't met,
I think his name is “to forget”,
and now you wanna go back to sleep
so you'll never meet.

I think you wanna dream another dream,
it's easier to take away what’s real,
and now you wanna hide from the grief
when someone leaves.

I think you’re not afraid of him no more, no more.
I think you wanna fight him 'til the end.
I think you’re not afraid to be alone no more
my beautiful friend.

I think you wanna learn to tell a lie,
but everytime you try your mouth feels dry,
and now you wanna find a way to fight,
but your arms are tied.

I think you’re not afraid of him no more, no more.
I think you wanna fight him 'til the end.
I think you’re not afraid to be alone no more
my beautiful friend.

3. The Heart

I had been at war
but not in victory.
With feelings of despair,
I thought that it was fair,
what life was meant to be.

The walls were closing in.
I lost my winning streak.
I thought of all the laughter
and disaster at the end
of all things.

Then I heard a sound,
a distant melody,
that tried to wake me up inside
so I could see the light,
but I couldn’t set it free.

I thought of all the harm
I'd caused through history,
my longing for the stars,
when madness called.

I thought about the dark
that lived inside my dreams
and listened for a beat to save my heart.

I had the finest friend,
was fortunate like few.
She saved me from my grief
and fifteen tons of steel
of cages made for me.

But everything was you,
the heart that stayed the same,
I know you offered joy
but you were filled with burden too,
an empire of truth.

I thought of history,
I danced beneath the stars,
I tried to fall asleep,
when madness called.

I thought about my dreams,
they spoke to me with love,
of moments so proud of,
to save my heart.

4. Chasing Happiness

All the lights go out when you rush away.
In the air there is silence and radio waves.
All the cold is not gonna let you go
before your restless soul finds a new home.

You can hear the noise that your mind makes.

All the stars at night, they can glow again.
All your doubts can fade like your tears in rain.
You can never save what cannot be saved,
but there's a cycle in you life that you can break.

You can see the ghosts from your past times
when you think of me.

This is just a moment and a state of mind.
Nothing says we can't change if we really try.

When you're feeling down and I feel the same
I want you here with me.

5. The Season

Cards on the wall, pictures of trees.
Loved ones that call, friends who send greets.
The family's home, the children make sounds.
Grandmother works on their gingerbread house.

She works so hard to please them.
She works so hard this season.

A star and crown light up the town.
The moon and the snow makes everything glow.
When she was small she feared the white beard.
Believed in his cause, his hundreds of deer.

She tried her best to please him.
She tried her best that season.

Voices from far, joyful and thrilled,
chant melodies that wake her from sleep.

They sing:

Don't be sad, it's christmas.
Don't be mad, it's christmas.
Don't be sad, it's christmas.
It's christmas.

6. Nothing

You dropped your crown into a well.
You leaned too far and then it fell
and now you dream and you are not waking.

When you went down to get it back
you lost your heart in all that black.
Now you can’t help that you are just faking.

You are, you are the nothing.
You are the queen of nothing.
You are the taste of a different life
and I cannot be by your side

cause I need more than that.

You dropped your crown into a well
and now your heart’s down there as well.
For you it waits and it is not breaking.

You are, you are the nothing.
You are the queen of nothing.
You are the taste of a different life
and I cannot be by your side.

7. The Girl In The Mirror

Once there was snow,
fields dressed in white.
Nothing would grow
in her kingdom of ice.

And once there was fall,
and rain from the skies
soaked through her cloathes,
took the warmth from her life.

She saw a mirror
with a girl locked inside,
and inside the mirror

she was trying to be someone,
trying to change her life.
She was trapped in her doubt
trying to find a way out.

Once there was spring,
and trees without leaves.
She was worn out and thin,
neither strong, nor weak.

And summer came late,
but she found what she had lost.
The girl was awake,
the girl she once was.

She was breaking the mirror.
She would break every bone
and come out of the mirror

trying to be someone,
trying to change her life.
She would breathe through the night,
only trapped in a sigh.

8. Oh Darling

Oh darling please don’t hate me now.
I think you’re lost in space.

Oh darling what have you turned down?
You’ll want it back someday.

I know that it could have been love,
the feeling you never dreamed of,
and I know you’re walking away
from the world’s most beautiful place.

Oh Darling I want to be you friend.
Sometimes a good thing has to end.

I know that it could have been love,
the feeling you never dreamed of,
and I know you’re walking away
from the world’s most beautiful place.

I’ll never leave.

9. Oscar Wilde

I’m in the candlelight
and it’s no longer so dark.
I hear a thunderstorm outside
and through a window I see sparks.
I'm thinking about the time
when I was still alive.

No, there’s no sign of any fight.
It's all inside my heart.
My head feels a little light
as the rumbling starts.

I been around for quite some time
but nothing's like when I was five.
Now I’m floating in the night,
a satellite.

And the thunder has gone by,
it’s quiet in my room,
just a distant sound of cries
from the life I knew.

And I remember Oscar Wilde,
"a kiss may ruin a life”,
but I’d be glad to pay that price
to feel alive.

10. A Frame Around A Picture

To be a day in someone else's life.
To be a frame around a picture in her mind.

To be a key you cannot throw away,
to be a dream, the only place she lets you stay.

To be small and be all but the drug she needs.
To be able to set her free,
but not the answer she seeks
to be complete.

To be a part of someone else's blood.
To be a heart that doesn't know what's good.
To be in love for just a little while
and then be lost 'til the end of all time.

To stand tall and be all but her heart's belief.
To be able to set her free,
but not the magic she seeks
to be complete.

11. Under My Armor

The sky is full of words.
It speaks to me at night.
It tells me to be brave,
that life will be okay.

The day is full of thrills
that crave to be fulfilled.
It tells me I must fight,
then life will be alright.

When I come home I want to feel.
When I come home I want to need,

when the sky isn't there anymore,
there's only a storm and a sheltering song,
and the high isn't there anymore,
there's only a war and I don't know what's wrong,
if I belong.

12. The Streets Of Johannesburg

I left you in a haste
to find a new friend.
Kept a picture of your face
'til I’d be home again.

Nine hundred miles away,
through fields of endless red,
I travelled through your heart
and all that wasn’t said

to the streets of Johannesburg.

I was in a different place,
and of a different race,
but I was without fear
when crowds were coming near.

Just praying for my phone
to get a message from back home,
that I wasn’t on my own

on the streets of Johannesburg.

13. A Grain Of Sand

I have a teardrop behind my eye,
it's been waiting there all my life,
and I can no longer see your fire
that would burn 'til the day we die.

Now I'm waiting full of desire,
waiting to take a stand,
or cleanse my hands,
if you don't feel that we have a chance.

I have a teardrop behind my eye
and my tear has a destiny.
It's been waiting to tell me why
it's becoming the essence of me.

Now I'm waiting full of desire,
waiting to take a stand,
or cleanse my hands,
if you don't feel that we have a chance.

I have a teardrop behind my eye.
I can't believe I do.
There's no secret that I would hide
and nothing I'd trade for you.

Now I'm waiting full of desire,
waiting to take a stand,
or cleanse my hands.
Or I'll be nothing, a grain of sand.

14. Listen To The Silence

Resting in the shade of time,
rolling with the tide,
waves of sound are floating through your mind
in silence.

You catch a word and something hurts,
you don't know know what to feel.
No one's around to hear you when you speak.

A dawn will wake your heart again.
A heart will always need a friend.

15. A Kingdom Inside Me

You gave me a flight of tears,
and a voice to say goodbye,
the life I held so dear,
and the shadow I couldn't hide
beneath my eyes.

You gave me a loving spark,
and a taste of being blessed.
The weight lifted from our hearts
and we escaped into happiness.

I wanted life to be
more than dusty dreams,
a kingdom inside me.

I wanted to come out,
to laugh and scream and shout,
to make somebody proud of me.

But I can't leave what I've left behind,
no I can't leave what I've left behind.

I wanted life to be
more than dusty dreams,
a kingdom inside me.

I wanted to come out,
to laugh and scream and shout,
to make somebody proud of me.

A boy grew up in the 1980’s with LP records, 8-bit Nintendo video games and Dire Straits on the radio. Olof Palme was still the Swedish prime minister, and the Berlin wall would remain a few more years. The security of Sweden, and the birthplace Gothenburg, was his solid ground. Just outside the city, in an old 19th century mansion, he spent his childhood years. Unlike other boys, he got to travel a lot, and he accompanied his father who was an archaeologist on digs in strange parts of the world. Every summer, he sat in soil and dust, under Greece’s scorching sun, with a shovel in his hand - without knowing quite what he was looking for.

It was much later that he realized that all this had become a part of his heart. Three thousand year old jars had spoken to him. It was the first time he had seen the world with curious eyes. He had wanted to understand it, explore it, and to show others what he had found. But he had not chosen to follow in his father's footsteps.

At age eight, he discovered the piano. Like an archaeological dig, he wanted to dive into its depths and look for sounds that could explain everything - even life itself. He began his musical search, but somewhere along the way he got lost.

It would take 20 years before the boy would wake up again, out of a long hibernation. His father had passed away. Everything that had been his world when he was a child resurfaced. Through the memories and processing of the grief he found his way back to himself and his family.

A Traveler was born out of loss. There are many different ways to say goodbye. A son of an archaeologist chose to do it through music. The songs he wrote created a brighter existence. Anyone who wants to listen can travel there, and maybe find a little shelter.

‘A Traveler’ is the pseudonym of Swedish composer and songwriter Henrik Åström (born 1980 in Gothenburg). Following the memories of his father, Åström traveled to Greece and wrote the songs that would later become the self-titled album.

The long awaited album ‘A Traveler’ was released in January 2014. "Touching movie soundtrack style piece with keen melodies and drama. Well thought and delivered lyrics." Review Rhino, Jan 13 2014 "This swedish songwriter may just be starting out on his musical journey, but is is evident through the lyrics of this song that he has been on a long path with his father and he wants to remember these moments by sharing them with all of us." When The Grammophone Rings, Jan 20 2014 "A Traveler is a tremendously emotional and touching composition that links together the singer-songwriter tradition with emotive rock and alternative styles." Neufutur, May 8 2014 Buy the album digitally on: