Tip! 2025 stock Join Mattias Uneback from then band Ìxtahuele on a fantastic exotica underwater adventure in sound! Sail the high seas, explore their depths, marvel at their strange and colorful inhabitants. Beneath the waves and through the depths, forgotten worlds lie waiting. Bioluminescent creatures that have never seen the light of day, ancient beasts of gigantic proportions, sunken continents and underwater caves all await you. Using a variety of both classical and novel instruments, Mr. Uneback paints a vivid and living tableau for the receptive listener. Amusing and entertaining one moment, dramatic and fierce the next - but most of all, serenely beautiful. This is exotic orchestral seduction for those willing to embark on a journey of imagination.
Mattias Uneback grew up in a family where both his parents and siblings supported him in his interest in music. He got his formal musical education in a music collage and then as a percussionist in The Royal Swedish Army Drum Corps. After finishing his military service he studied more music at high school with a special orientation for guitar. After that he took and completed his degrees at the Music University of Gothenburg. He is now mostly active as the vocalist and double bass player in the internationally acclaimed band The Test Pilots and as the vibraphonist and bandleader of Sweden’s internationally famous exotica ensemble Ìxtahuele. Mattias is also a much-requested freelancing studio and session musician for radio, TV, clubs and various jazz bands, both in Sweden and internationally.
For recreation and fun Mattias has lots of interest; one of them is his longstanding interest in Tiki-culture. He says it’s hard not to like Exotica with it’s jazz-, Latin- and impressionism inspired soundscapes. This is something he really enjoys on the sides of many other musical genres. Music was also his natural entrance ticket in to the fantastic exotic world of Tiki and building his home Tiki-bar and mixing exotic cocktails was something soon to follow.
Stefan Kéry, the CEO of Subliminal Sounds, musician, music historian, among other things, had long dreamt about getting some musicians together to create an underwater themed album. First Stefan suggested the idea to Ìxtahuele, but several of the band members were busy with other projects at that time so this never panned out. Stefan then asked Mattias if he could try to do it as a solo effort with some guest musicians. Mattias really liked the idea and agreed to dive in to the project.
Stefan’s life-long search for historical recordings that could somehow be related to the broad term ”psychedelic” had led him way off the beaten path long ago. Vintage recordings with an outer space theme, that came out decades before the ”space-rock” genre was coined, sometimes mirrored the psychedelic inner space quest and had an amazing ethereal quality. But there were also a precious few titles, mostly in the exotica, electronica and library music genres, that dealt with the musical fantasies of the underwater depths that had a similar quality to them. The sea as the mysterious unknown and unexplored frontier on earth mirroring the exploration of outer space and the cosmos as well as that of inner space of the mind. Stefan suggested Mattias find inspiration from recordings like these as well as from the suggestive sleeves of many of the underwater themed album covers for records from the exotica and easy listening genres. As the two continued to talk and listen Mattias started to get many ides on how he would like to depict an underwater environment musically.
The process of creating the album, composing, arranging, recording and mixing etc, became a new an interesting process for Mattias and something that broaden his views, both as an arranger and composer. The compositions on the album grew to be very personal and a little ambiguous during the process with several songs invoking personal memories.
