After initially finding an audience through peer-to-peer file sharing sites, Lekman signed to Secretly Canadian Records in 2003, and went on to release a slew of cherished material, including three cult limited-edition EPs Maple Leaves,Rocky Dennis, andJulie later collected on the 2005 compilation albumOh Youre So Silent Jens. His DIY fantasias found their fullest and most celebrated form in 2007 on his second album proper, the exquisite Night Falls Over Kortedala Lekmans self-professed dream record. It went to number one in Sweden and was later hailed as one of the 200 best albums of the 2000s by Pitchfork, as well as one of the top 100 albums of the 21st century so far by The Guardian.

Now, likeOh Youre So Silent Jens, it no longer exists in its original form.

Oh Youre So Silent Jensenigmatically disappeared in 2011;Night Falls Over Kortedalafollowed suit in early 2022. Lekmans impulse for giving old music fresh life and context has led him to remake the records under new names, each delicately positioned in dialogue with the past the same albums, just different.The Cherry Trees Are Still In BlossomandThe Linden Trees Are Still In Blossomare a pair of lovingly and painstakingly assembled reduxes each keeping the same core tracklisting, spirit and source material as the originals, but blending brand new versions of some tracks, in part or in whole, together with many tracks left largely as they were. Both records are fleshed out with rare, previously unreleased, and even previously unfinished old songs, as well as other contemporaneous material such as cassette diaries.

OnThe Cherry Trees, two of Lekmans best-loved early breakout singles are completely reimagined Maple Leaves as a tender ballad burnished with warm strings; tragi-comic illegal taxi ride to oblivion Black Cab in two different versions, a handsome full band pop song and a gentle acoustic lullaby.The Linden Treesrepackages all the true-life tales, magic, and mystery ofNight Fallsfor a new age, yet in wholly familiar form, from the joyous The Opposite of Hallelujah to hilariously uplifting missive A Postcard to Nina and open-hearted love-song Your Arms Around Me.

Taken together, the new albums form a sort of belated farewell to Lekmans formative days as a bedroom Scott Walker, panning for sample gold in stacks of vintage vinyl. Albeit not a farewell to the original albums themselves, which will live on in fans record collections, and perhaps illicit corners of the internet. Spread to the wind.

1. November 27, 20022. At the Dept. of Forgotten Songs3. Maple Leaves4. Sky Phenomenon5. Pocketful of Money6. Black Cab7. Someone to Share My Life with8. December 19, 20029. Rocky Dennis’ Farewell Song to the Blind Girl10. Rocky Dennis in Heaven11. Jens Lekman’s Farewell Song to Rocky Dennis12. April 23, 200313. I Saw Her in the Anti-War Demonstration14. A Sweet Summer’s Night on Hammer Hill15. A Man Walks Into a Bar16. Another Sweet Summer’s Night on Hammer Hill17. F-Word18. The Wrong Hands19. June 1, 200320. Eureka21. The Cherry Trees Are Still in Blossom22. Black Cab (Acoustic)