A few months ago we wrote an article about the exciting and growing talent, highly creative, that the Northern Europe is presenting to the world, focusing on Folk music, where we remembered bands and artists like Of Monsters and Men, First Aid Kit, Kings of Convenience, among others, and featured Marlene Oak and Simen Mitlid. Now we decided to pay our tribute to Scandinavian talents and promising acts. Check out our selection!
Pastis
Usually we don’t hear many Finnish bands, for some reason the world still hasn’t discovered it yet. But we think that Pastis are worth paying close attention. A 5-piece band formed in Helsinki makes its music inspired in Britpop, shoegaze and a bit LA indie-rock. What we find curious in every Northern band is that their sonorities always transmit some cold, some kind of wintery feeling, but Pastis resigned to be that way: they want to transmit an unique yet transversal style, which they made in their debut LP Circles, released in February this year. The 11-track album is freshy and reminds the energetic bands of early 90’s and although it’s their first full-length the band sounds mature and it’s clear that they all know where they want the music to be.
The rock vibe of the beginning of the song is slowed down at some point by a ska-reggae song, Barrack Street, and even though it’s very different from the rest of the album it doesn’t sound off of it. Pastis’ sonority is eclectic and not less experimental than it is a safe bet, as it may sound sometimes, and the fact is that their versatility provides an extremely addicting album which we can listen over and over. The songs are usually shorter than the usual and that helps the dynamism, example of that is Disco Volante, their shorter song, but its energy can put everyone jumping and dancing during every second.
Tilla
Another example of talent and creativity in music is Tilla, a Norwegian young artist who’ve just released her debut single Slow. Despite having no previous official original releases, she already performed at some national festivals, performed at some local clubs as DJ and live supporting other artists. At the age of 21 she’s now making her way up to the top on solo. Slow is a smooth R’n’B-Soul trippy-dreamy melody. In fact, is like Sade meets Rhye; if you can imagine that you can guess it’s beautiful. Tilla created a sexy and relaxing sonority that brings back the Northern cold to our memories. The “cold-pattern” we usually hear in most of the Northern acts is once again present in Tilla’s performance and it works perfectly as a Scandinavian visit-card. We just can’t wait for this young extremely talented singer-songwriter and producer to release more and more of her work!
Gundelach
So we stay visiting Norway, after passing through Finland and now we want to tell you about more danceable and electronic music. Bolder is the first single of Gundelach new EP called My Frail Body, released today in all platforms. But let us go back for a second. Gundelach is not actually a discovery of a brand-new act, he is in fact one of Norway’s pearls since he’s been performing in many clubs and festivals across Oslo and the rest of the country as a DJ and extremely talented young guitarist. Later he was invited by Munch Museum to write an interpretation of Munch’s famous painting “Self-portrait in Hell” and the result was Bolder, a chilled-electronic song, sounding as much introspective as liberating and takes us to the dancefloor. The song has Gundelach’s intention on relating himself with Edvard Munch and at some point, Munch’s serenity and mysterious way can be heard (if that’s possible?) in the song. The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress is the second released single and his falsetto is put in this song in some way that gives deepness to the whole song. The artist creates a complex and “exotic” ambient, full of different genre influences and tendencies, being one of the most pleasant melodies we’ve listen this year.
Ayelle
Continuing our trip in Scandinavia, we step now in Sweden for the most hyped act this year. Ayelle was one of the most expecting acts at SXSW this year and her music speaks for itself. Performing a unique form of R’n’B, Ayelle’s music travels around electronic vibes and uplift and angelical vocals, the resemblances are not so obvious and that’s what makes us so hooked to it. Today she released Regrets, a track that features Akacia and BB in a very conscious song. Ayelle’s voice is powerful and has a remarkable identity, which combines perfectly with the defying electronic that usually evolves her music, but in Regrets the lyrics have more protagonism than usual, since the singer and songwriter wanted to aware the public to mental health problems, so she just raised a campaign called #NoRegretsChallange. She is putting herself at the top with her seductive sonority and challenging as well direct lyrics. The biggest opinionmakers in music have already discovered her, and what about you?