Svaj. – Rewind (EP – TZW Produktion)
Genre/Influences: Minimal-Electro.
Format: Digital, CD.
Background/Info: Svaj. Is a Swedish solo-project driven by Tomas Z. Westberg. This guy is busy with different projects. Last year I had the opportunity to discover the old-school EBM project, Syntet. He now strikes back with Svaj. The songs were originally composed in the late 80s and reactivated plus reworked in 2022.
Content: “Rewind” is pure nostalgia. The Electro-Wave and Minimal-Electro format definitely belong to the 80s. The global production and still the vocals remind me of Absolute Body Control.
+ + + : Svaj. Is a must have and a true discovery for 80s fans. The songs smell like pure 80s Electro-Wave. The cuts are short, dark, driven by simple tunes and recovered by sweeping effects. “Still Standing” and “Dream Telepathy” both the most noticeable cuts.
– – – : I regret the songs aren’t a bit longer but here again that’s pure 80s like.
Conclusion: Svaj. Is another cool Electro project byTomas Z. Westberg and I hope to hear more new stuff in this direction.
Best songs: “Still Standing”, “Dream Telepathy”, “Rewind”.
Rate: 7½.
Artist & Label: https://www.tzw.se
Listen to “Rewind”:
About Svaj.
Svaj. is a Swedish electronic project that started in 2022 around Tomas Z Westberg, who sings and plays the electronics. The release credits also list Anders O Öhgren on bass, and the project is described elsewhere as a duo of Westberg and Öhgren. The music mixes electro-wave, minimal-electro and synth-pop with a strong visual concept. Westberg also runs the old-school EBM project Syntet.
“Rewind” came out on 14 March 2022 through TZW Produktion and holds six tracks: “Rewind”, “Dream Telepathy”, “The Freaks”, “Still Standing”, “Ashes” and “Brända Barn”. The last of these is a cover of a 1980 song written by Anders Brodin and Mikael Svensk. Irre plays trumpet on the title track, Syntetmusik recorded and mixed the release, and D. Kaufeldt mastered it at AI Static.
“Until We Fall” followed as the second release, and the third, “Maggots”, arrived in 2025 with a full-length video presentation.
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