Fredrik Kinbom is a Swedish lap steel player/multi-instrumentalist/singer/composer based in Berlin. Since first picking up the lap steel in 2005, his original style and sound has led to recording and/or international touring with acclaimed acts like Gemma Ray, Gurrumul, Alberta Cross, Moulettes and Ned Collette as well as film soundtrack work. His second solo album with the lap steel in focus, Oil (Capstan Records, 2014), received much critical praise. He has contributed as a co-writer to albums by Sarah Blasko and Gemma Ray, and has released three albums with his theatrical side project Kinbom & Kessner (featuring a stellar cast of guests like James Williamson (Iggy & The Stooges), Angela Winkler and members of Moulettes, Hazmat Modine, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Augie March).

 

His most recent release is the Kinbom & Kessner album Anthropos (Hook Music/Theater der Zeit, 2022), which SCHALL. Musikmagazin called "a masterpiece of attentive-listening music".

 

In 2023, he formed the new band Red Largo together with Andreas Dormann, Chris Farr and Sonja Kessner. Their debut album Transmitting will be released in February 2024.

 

Fredrik Kinbom mainly plays the lap steel slide guitar, but the way he plays it sounds nothing like the Hawaiian, blues or country sound most people would associate with the lap steel. He really creates his own sonic universe.

 

In 2019 Fredrik Kinbom started the collaboration Kinbom/Brandenburg with composer/pianist Hans-Jörn Brandenburg (Robert Wilson, Tom Waits, Kronos Quartet), to compose and record instrumental music for film, TV and the stage. The duo's first TV soundtrack - for Jean Boué's documentary Die Unerhörten - was broadcast on German RBB Television in August 2019. The film won a Grimme Preis award in 2020.

"Excellent." - BBC Radio 3 (Late Junction)

 

"Oil is amazing and Kinbom’s talent is extraordinary." - 4.5/5 stars - Renowned For Sound

 

"...an artist that has found a sound so unique and contemporary, that it belies comparison to stand on its own as a testament of Kinbom's artistic creativity. This is a must have." - Floorshime Zipper Boots