Edson was formed by Pelle Carlberg in the summer of 1998, and he named the band after the great soccer player Edson Arantes do Nascimento, i.e. Pelé. The first couple of months the piano took a prominent part in the sound, giving the songs a tangible jazz pop flavour. Initially the band was Pelle’s solo project, but since then it has more and more developed into a democratic unity, with Pelle as the songwriter and lead singer.
In december of 1999 the band got the formation it has today: Pelle sings, Filip Carvell plays the acoustic and the electric guitar and sings, Helena Söderman plays the flute, melodica, harmonica, glockenspiel, Wurlitzer and sings, Mårten Josjö plays the electric guitar, Mats Deltin plays the bass and Ulf Lundberg the drums.
In 1999 Edson made about 30 live appearances, e.g. one at the demo stage of the Hultsfred festival in Sweden. After the performance Edson met John Cloud, who was interested in releasing something on his label Stormstreet records. In September a four-track EP was released containing the songs »Sunday, lovely sunday«, »I Didn´t Mean to be Mean«, »22:22 {We Need a Quarrel, We Need a Fight}« and »Terry Whips«.
The same year the band contributed with two songs on the compilation CD »The Sound of Young Sweden« and with one song each on Sound Affects Magazine’s »Hultsfred special-CD« and the »Demoscenen«-CD of the Hultsfred festival. The »Sunday, lovely sunday« EP was also released by Matinée Recordings in the US, but with a slightly different tracklist.
In the autumn of -00 Edson was signed to Summersound Recordings and recorded their debut album »Unwind with edson«, which was released February 14 2001 and was received well.
Album number two, »For Strength«, was recorded and mixed during ten intensive days in the end of December of 2001, once again with Andreas Ahlenius as technician and once again mainly in the rock metropolis of Gävle, Sweden. The result is very satisfactory. Edson has evolved as a unity, and their sound is more homogeneous and personal.
Labrador Records
