Carbon Based Lifeforms (CBL) are Johannes Hedberg and Daniel Vadestrid. They are based in Goteborg in Sweden and formed in 1996.
Since 2002 they have released 7 official full length albums: ‘Hydroponic Garden’ (2003), ‘World Of Sleepers’ (2006), ‘Interloper’ (2009) and ‘Twenty Three’ (2012), ‘Derelicts’ (2017), ‘Stochastic’ (2021) and ‘Seeker’ (2023). Their music has been extraordinarily well received by connoisseurs within the ambient/psybient scenes and well beyond. Find these albums on their Bandcamp page HERE.
CBL aim to combine earth and space in their music, using the combination of nature and technology as the main inspiration for their work. They have played all over Europe and the US including many festival appearances such as Symbiosis (US), Anthropos (UK) and Ozora (Hungry) and played 2 consecutive sold out laser shows in London in 2023.
In 2009 the Duo played a groundbreaking 360 degree show at Cosmonova, the planetarium at the Swedish Museum of Natural History. Ticket demand was so big that the show sold out immediately and a second was quickly added. The projections for this show used around 486,000 master images sent and blended through six video streams. In 2024 they performed at another literally groundbreaking show as it was down an ancient mine 80 meters underground in a 40m high cave.
Electronic bands The Future Sound of London and Boards of Canada were a big influence on them; Daniel Vadestrid called them “our role models”. Three of their albums, World of Sleepers No.1, Interloper No.2, Hydroponic Garden No.4 and Derelicts No.14 are in the top twenty Psybient albums of all time as rated by RYM/Sonemic users and alongside such artists as Sphongle, Gas, AES Dana and Solar Fields.
In January 2023 Daniel Vadestrid released the book ‘The Path To Derelicts’ which takes the reader through defining moments that shaped the band’s story. “Johannes and I met by chance as children and almost died twice before our first album was released”.
The book is Daniel’s personal story of how the Swedish ambient duo Carbon Based Lifeforms came to be, and reveals details of the studios, albums, and live sets. The book takes the reader through defining moments that shaped the band’s story, including forays into other projects such as Notch, Thermostatic and T.S.R. It was rated 4.69/5 by Good Reads. The music is pretty good too.
Next Spring will see the arrival of Carbon Based Lifeforms to these parts for the first ever time. They have announced a select trio of dates which begins here in Brighton & Hove, where they will be expanding our minds on Thursday 24th April 2025 when they appear at The Old Market which is located at Upper Market Street, Hove, BN3 1AS. Opening the evening will be a special Carbon Based Lifeforms x DJ Paulina B2B DJ set – arrive early, get a good spot and enjoy the whole night! Special guests TBC.
Tickets are on sale now and can be purchased from The Old Market HERE, or from SeeTickets HERE as well as also being on sale from HERE.
Their other appearances will be at EartH Theatre in Hackney, London on 25th April (Tickets HERE) and at The Yard in Manchester on 26th April (Tickets HERE).
To give you an idea of what to expect, then check out their live performance of ‘Underground’ HERE.
