In exactly the same way that indie chamber folk auteur Jens Lekman was discovered -- his homemade CD-Rs falling into the right hands -- Lekman's Swedish compatriot Emil Svanängen (aka Loney, Dear) ended up signed to a respected American indie label when someone in Sub Pop's Seattle offices happened upon his homemade discs through the Internet. Hailing from the small city of Jonkoping, Sweden, Svanängen first began recording and self-releasing tapes of delicate, folkish indie pop (with shades of acts like Belle & Sebastian, Neutral Milk Hotel, and the Magnetic Fields) in the early 2000s. Sub Pop offered him a contract in 2006, and his first proper album, Loney, Noir, appeared in 2007. ~ Stewart Mason