Release date: 21st October 2013
Label: Jansen Plateproduksjon
Sweden usually steals the Scandinavian limelight when it comes to great music with the obvious Abba connection and the addition of Bat For Lashes, Simian Ghost (Automation) and Here Comes Your Temple (So High) more recently. However, the introduction of Norwegian due, Mona & Maria, along with their upcoming debut album, My Sun, the northern lights balance is about to be tipped a little more in favour of the country on the left hand side.
The band is made up of Mona Anderson and Maria Knudsen, who look and sound like they’re somehow both descendants of the same lineage that gave us the amazing look and voice of Nico. If their preview track, also called My Sun, is anything to go by, the album should set M&M up for an impressive 2013, which will hopefully be added to by a UK tour before the year’s out.
The debut album has been confirmed for a release date of the 21st October 2013 through Jansen Plateproduksjon. The ten track album is already available on the US version of iTunes, but it will be available to download in the UK on the date above, as well as being available in CD. However, no UK vinyl release has been announced as of yet for My Sun.
The preview track of the same name is below to give you a feel for what the band sounds like. It’s a dreamy psych-folk track with some parallels with Nico’s Chelsea Girls and work with The Velvet Underground. It combines some great sounds to converge in a a wall of noise style for the big hitting chorus and returning to more stripped back folk during the verses. It’s a quality track with great variety and interlaced vocals from the dual lead singers.
Here at Tuppence we think it blurs the boundaries between pop and rock, folk and psychedelia to create a track that is slow and beautiful as well as being driven and punchy.
If you’re looking for something else to give you a good idea of what to expect from the record, Mona and Maria has already released Silent Summer, the first single from the record. It’s already available for digital download on iTunes and Amazon. It’s got more pace than the My Sun track, but both are well grounded in a new wave 60s sound.
If you recognise the faces, blurred though they are on the album front cover, it’s because the duo have previously released two albums together as a part of Bazooker Poppers. They have continued on together in the aftermath of the breakup of their former band.
Talking about My Sun, Mona and Maria said, “Something was let loose after we started working on songs that did not fit the sound of the band we were in. We strongly felt the need to create something more personal, and we started making melodies to something obscure that had been lying dormant in both of us. After a band breakdown, came a new musical need that we found in each other. We both were terrified of singing alone, but together we sort of found a third person to make us feel secure.”
Following the breakup of Bazooka Boppers in 2010, the pair continued to work together and new material was created over the last few years. Talking about the time since the start of the duo and the upcoming release they comment, “We began experimenting with harmonies. It became our way of being together. After several rounds and recordings of these songs, the record started to take shape, and we found our soundscape by working with dynamics. We wanted to have both the low-key and intimate, and the grandiose and dramatic, to have both darkness and light at once. We wanted to make unpretentious arrangements that enhanced the lyrics and the melodies, and not buried them. The result was My Sun.”
The album was recorded at Engfelt & Forsgren Studios with the help of Christian Engfelt as producer, along with the girls themselves. Engfelt also plays the bass on a few of the songs. It’s not the only collaboration on the album though as Mona and Maria pulled together a significant collection of Norwegian musicians to work with them.
This included Martin Horntveth (Jonas Alaska) for percussion, David Wallumrød (Jonas Alaska) on keys, Eivind Staxrud (Raga Rockers) on guitar, Olaf Olsen (Big Bang) taking care of drumming duties, Knut Schreiner (Mirror Lakes) as guest guitarist, Marcus Bror Forsgren (Lionheart Brothers) for more guest guitar skills, Kaja Fjellberg Pettersen (Karpe Diem) playing cello, Bendik Brænne (Los Plantronics) on saxophone and flute, Henning Sansdalen (Hanne Hukkelberg) adding to the bass buildup, Hans Friis (Los Plantronics) on trombone and members of KORK providing strings and bassoon.
Mona & Maria, My Sun stream:
Tracklist:
1. My Sun
2. Northern Wind
3. Silent Summer
4. Venus
5. Babyflowers
6. Let the Light
7. Runaways
8. Golden Mind
9. Healing Song
10. Shivers In The Blue
