Biography

“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

Fredrik Kinbom is a Swedish lap steel player/multi-instrumentalist/singer/composer and mastering/mixing engineer 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 and theatre music 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).

In 2023, he co-founded the band Red Largo with Sonja Kessner, Andreas Dormann (Moka Efti Orchestra) and Chris Farr (Michelle Gurevich). The band’s first album Transmitting received great reviews in magazines like The Wire and was nominated in three categories for the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik (German Record Critics’ Award). The band’s second album Hotel Neuf will be released soon.

In 2019 Fredrik 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 2019. The film won a Grimme Preis award in 2020. The duo released the album Madame Vega (Float) in 2021 and have since composed music for several more TV-productions and films.

Since 2015 he works together with theatre artist Sonja Kessner as Kinbom & Kessner. The duo has released three albums of theatrical songs in German – most recently Anthropos (Hook Music/Theater der Zeit, 2022), which SCHALL. Musikmagazin called “a masterpiece of attentive-listening music“ – and composed and recorded music for several theatre productions. Their music can currently be heard in the plays “Der gestiefelte Kater“ and “Iphigenie Königskind“ at Theater Waidspeicher in Erfurt. A fourth Kinbom & Kessner album is in pre-production.

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 music productions, his attention to detail and love of the craft shines through in his rich and organic-sounding mixes and masters.