Pär Hagström & The Charlatans of Love

  Pär Hagström has always moved along the outer edges of music – from the first stumbling chords on his family’s pump organ in Huskvarna, through 90s death metal and 70s hard rock, to the innermost heart of gospel. It’s a journey shaped as much by philosophy, literature, and theater as by rock clubs and church halls, eventually arriving at a universe of its own where drama and soulful preaching merge into one. During the 2000s he toured extensively with projects such as the orchestra Cirkus Transmopol and the art rock duo Next Stop: Horizon, often together with his longtime collaborator Jenny Roos. In parallel, he has built a career as a composer for film and theater – including for major institutions in Germany as well as the San Francisco Ballet. Back home in Gothenburg, he runs Skeppet GBG, a hub for music, stage, and food culture, where many of his projects have also taken shape. As a frontman, Hagström is as much a preacher as he is a singer. His voice carries a natural theatrical force – raspy and silky at the same time – with an instinctive readiness to let the music chafe, sweat, and hypnotize. Drawing inspiration from Tom Waits, Led Zeppelin, Mavis Staples and the Blind Boys of Alabama, and together with his band Charlatans of Love, he has in recent years shaped a new musical entity where gospel, soul, psychedelic rock, and funk meet in something as seductive as it is uncompromising. DREAMERS BELIEVERS ILLUSIONISTS PREACHERS is a continuation of the mini-album The End Again (2024), picking up where the story left off. Here, memories, visions of the future and recycled sounds intertwine into a warm, distorted and narrative soundscape – recorded live at Skeppet GBG’s studio in the old Seamen’s Church in Gothenburg. The result is a psychedelic mass for lost souls, where Reverend Jack returns to gather his flock and lead them through a mythical universe of sound. The album will be celebrated with a release show during Viva Sounds Festival in Gothenburg at the end of November, followed by selected performances in Germany and Poland.