“It’s always the goal to challenge myself and the band as much as possible. I want the music to even catch me on the wrong foot from time to time”, admits the singer and musical architect who records ethereal, oft- hushed but forever gripping synth-anchored music under the moniker Klangstof.

The Dutch-born, Norway-raised Van De Wardt is on the surface a happy-go-lucky 24- year-old (“People expect a very depressed young man and instead they get this smiling asshole”), and yet when he retreats to his solitary place to write music, much in the way he’s done since first picking up the guitar at age 14, the anxiety, the negativity, the feeling that he’s misunderstood, it all comes pouring out. The result is a collage of the supremely genteel yet haunting vocals, sleek melodies and experimental beats and rhythms.

There’s a patience at play in Klangstof’s aural creations: the musician is a craftsman when constructing the chilling sound that comprises his stunning debut album, Close Eyes to Exit. It’s there in the crisp, slow-building single “Hostage,” electric guitars gently strummed, electronic beats like a rising heartbeat, all giving way to full- throated release: “I ran for shelter/But I got there,” he intones. Or in the way “Sleaze” shifts from whispered confession (“Nintendo is the only thing that makes me smile”) to propulsive, rainbow-hued synths at a moment’s notice.

After moving with his family from his native Netherlands to rural Norway at age 14, the once-social teenager found himself totally isolated. “I was just a guy playing football and hanging with friends in Holland and then all of a sudden I was sitting in Norway with no one around,” he recalls. “My life was torn apart and I had to start all over again. I had to learn a new language and build up a new life”. He turned to music.

In short time, creating music became an almost manic pursuit for the fledging musician. He’d lock himself in his parent’s basement, master one instrument after the next, tinker on his laptop for hours at a time, searching for the perfect sound. Even after attending Hedmark University College and playing bass in a popular Dutch band, Moss, Van De Wardt felt compelled to return to his own well. “That’s when I started to do Klangstof” (“klang” means echo in Norwegian and “stof”, dust in Dutch).

· BEATS 1 ZANE LOWE
“ If you love Radiohead, Pink Floyd, My Morning Jacket, Mercury Rev and all of the amazing musicians which take songs into a more widescreen environment, and you get to know Klangstof. It’s called ‘We Are Your Receiver.’"

· NME MATT WILKINSON
 “'Hostage’ by Klangstof sounds like the more shimmering moments of pre-bloopy Radiohead, if they had aligned themselves with the production tendencies of Abel Tesfaye and the soaring beauty of all those Sigor Ros moments that make nature programmes so atmospheric."

· IDOLATOR MIKE WASS 
"the soundscape is impressively vast, the lyrics (as sparse as they are) and tone are decidedly intimate."

Raglans New EP Again and Again released on Fierce Panda Records was Recorded in Los Angeles with Jason Wade and Chris Murguia (Lifehouse) and mixed by Chris Sheldon (Foo Fighters, Biffy Clyro).

‘Who Knows’ and the other four tracks on ‘Again & Again’ present an ever-more expansive Raglans roar, retaining the ferocious fist-in-the-air glory of their self-titled top 5 debut album while adding pathos-laden power balladry with ‘War Torn’ and ‘Claire’.

It’s an emotional, energetic sound which reflects the life of a band who have been travelling the world, getting up and getting down - like their distant touring brethren Catfish & The Bottlemen and The Sherlocks Raglans are rugged road troopers, touring like there’s no tomorrow. Or at least no tomorrow without another service station pasty, another empty, echoing soundcheck and another sweetly sweat-soaked show to pile on through…

“All the songs on ‘Again & Again’ were written in the last two years so they are all informed by what’s been going on in my life and in the life of the band,” explains singer Stephen. “‘Who Knows’ is the perfect example of this: the lyric is about juggling two important relationships, one with a person and one with a group of fellas you travel around the world with in a van, and the uncertainly that comes with each and the pressure they put on each other. Then, being in Paris on tour and visiting the grave of Oscar Wilde gave me the perspective I needed to finish the song. The verses were the question, the chorus became the answer.”

The past? Well now let us tell you about the past. Two years ago they released their debut album, the succinctly-titled ‘Raglans’, which spawned the tracks ‘Natives’, ‘Before Tonight’ and ‘White Lightning’. Those tracks garnered radio support from Huw Stephens, Dermot O’Leary, Phil Taggart and Alice Levine, earned live supports with Haim, The Fray, The Strypes and Twin Atlantic as well as The Libertines in Hyde Park and generally saw the quartet having more fun than a meerkat on a mountain bike.

Featuring members from Britain, South Korea and Italy, their influences range far and wide. But comparisons with Sleep, Bo Ningen and The Doors ring most true; though the band are certainly developing their own distinctive sound. New music has finally arrived in the form of single, “So Long…” taken from their forthcoming EP.

20 year-old twin sisters Catherine and Lizzy Ward Thomas have the vocal power and versatility to make you forget the external. Fresh, wholesome, honest and sincere, they both portray an easy-going, confident style that oozes a mixture of the untainted swagger of youth with the confidence and bravado of adulthood, and the soul of classic female icons well beyond their years.

Family harmony singing, especially sibling harmonies, has long been a staple of Country music, and Catherine and Lizzy deliver an intricate and effective vocal package. Their harmonies dissolve into the musical bloodstream and their original thoughtful and intuitive song lyrics aid the process. More to the point, both possess strong, powerful voices and a distinctive feel for modern Country.

In 2014, in between putting the finishing touches to their debut album, Ward Thomas headed out on the road, touring all across the UK and also working doing gigs and showcases around Nashville and other music venues in America’s deep south, where their uniquely ‘British-take on Country music’ has been well-received.

In the spring of 2014 they made the BBC Radio 2 playlist with The Good And The Right. That coincided with the releases of their FOOTNOTES EP, which featured their first non-original song. They make Dougie MacLean’s Caledonia very much their own as they strike a stunning balance between vulnerability and self-assurance.

Ward Thomas are one of the most refreshing acts to come along in some time and in ‘From Where We Stand’ they have put together a beguiling debut album that is sure to charm all who come across it. They are the kind of act whose future literally seems unlimited.

Alan Cackett (Founding Editor, Maverick Magazine)