SOFFIE VIEMOSE

Some music suits a certain mood. It just does. When you correctly match your mood to the music it can envelope you like a cloud of silk. However, some music is so atmospheric and so effective, painting a perfect tone, that it drags your mood into it’s picture whether you want it to or not. It’s design is so attractive that it’s impossible to resist. Today we are recommending a new artist who manages that trick like a master. Although her movements are subtle and patient, she will have you hypnotized under her spell before you know it. This is music that not only affects your mood, it controls it. Resistance is futile, so prepare to sink into your seat, prepare to let it surround you, prepare to let go, as this is music that comes with it’s own magical demands.

We’ve had a theme running on The Recommender over the last few weeks, covering a selection of outstanding artists that all happen to come from Denmark. You may recall the songsmith behind the group called Ulige Numre, or the earnest lift that came from Pinknoizu, or perhaps our favourite discovery of the year with Rangleklods and his outstanding alternative pop masterpieces. There must surely be something in the water in that corner of Scandinavia. Well, today we bring you the next Danish musician, showing us that this remarkable country isn’t quite yet finished with producing the most exciting artists of 2012, as yet another fresh creative, known as the solo artist Soffie Viemose, appears from this intriguing corner of Europe. It also continues the variation, as although these artists are all very fantastic indeed, they span a broad range of styles.

Soffie provides perhaps the starkest music of them all, but also perhaps the most grown up. This is music for adults. Adults who are comfortable with their own company. Adults who like to dive into their music with their eyes closed and let their imagination float out around them. She creates a stripped back form of electronic ballad, with attractive vocals, sung mostly in English, delivering it all whilst full of melodies and beautiful key changes. Wonderfully describing herself as “a Laptopper“, this is a synthetic form of fairytale that is ultra-contemporary in design, but it also feels just as secluded and singular as the image of someone actually working alone on a laptop. Her music has a cold architecture to it, with straight lines and sharp edges, but inside each tune, once it’s layers are all peeled back, you find elements that are as warm and rounded as a beating heart.

Her debut album, By Polar, is due out on her own label, Polar Records later this year. Comparisons will no doubt bounce around to other alternative pop balladeers such as Bjork, particularly on the single, Gift, and you can find familiar comparisons with a multitude of other Scandinavian songstresses, but her music is mostly akin to the fragmented, minimal end of Radiohead‘s fried, electronic spectrum. An EParrived towards the end of last year, with five delightful tunes that all feel equally pitched at your cerebral cortex. It’s the first taste of her classy work and it sets things up nicely for the full album. This artist is skilled at making music that’s not just there to listen to, but to get lost in, so take five minutes to indulge yourself in her music, or at least be warned, as once you click play, she’s going to take five minutes from you whether you volunteer them or not.  (MB)

SOFFIE VIEMOSE – YOU WANT MORE

SOFFIE VIEMOSE – NO COMPASS

GOLDEN FABLE

Just like lots of other folks in the blog world, we get sent lots of material that is still at the demo stage. It’s to be expected seeing as we tend to operate among the bottom layers of the underground music scene, so we expect a broad range of finishes to the work received. However, some is surprisingly polished and it just goes to show how much effort goes into new bands from the outset – something that’s required to get noticed, particularly by record labels, if you want any chance of being signed in a very competitive environment, where fewer and fewer punts are taken. It’s also fair to say that these productions are a sign of just how much can be achieved from a home studio with the right computer programs. The reason we mention all this is that today’s recommendation is indeed at the demo stage, but their music is aiming so high, that it will need a professional studio before it touches the sky that it’s stretching for. But make no mistake, even though we’ve caught them almost too early, the sky is where they’re headed.

Tim McIver and Rebecca Palin make up the new duo from Wales, called Golden Fable. They used to be known as the leading protagonists for the cult group known as Tim and Sam’s Tim and the Sam Band. The former band toured, playing many major festivals and they even managed to deliver an album, but we’re glad things have now moved on, as we think they held the Welsh record for worst band name in history. From September of last year they turned their skills to this new project and adopted the new moniker, which thankfully is actually perfectly tailored to their sound. Almost immediately they set about organising their debut single, The Chill Part 2, and set out on a tour in support of Brighton’s The Miserable Rich. The single politely introduced us to their ethereal pop sound which unfolds like a four minute fairytale.

Next month we get their follow up single, Always Golden, which is planned for a release on Full Of Joy Records on March 5th. It’s another example of their storytelling chamber pop, but we believe they’ve reached a new level, particularly with the vocals. This is for fans of Paper Crows, minus the over-sized granite basslines, or particularly The Good Natured, with their ice queen fantasy or allegorical woodland imagery. If The Good Natured’s Sarah Macintosh is the gothic empress of this genre, then Golden Fable’s Rebecca Palin is it’s white angel. Her high-pitched vocals are an absolute joy to the ear drums, shifting in key like a string orchestra. In fact strings are an integral part of the sound, like a lot of bands from this genre, from the childlike acoustic guitar plucks to the warming cellos that drift around Palin’s chorister mist. It’s a diaphanous whirlwind of gossamer layers that you couldn’t grasp if you reached out with both hands. Every layer is as light as vapor, resting on the notes like a butterfly on a leaf. It’s grown up and emotional, and always utterly gorgeous.

Other songs on the single, such as Blueprints, continue the attractive theatrics, whilst their cover of the Manic Street Preachers‘ tune, Motorcycle Emptiness is a warming triumph, like a folk choir were personally delivering it to your doorstep like a Christmas carol. They absolutely nail this brand of music, from the imagery, to the melancholy shadows that loom all over it, but because it’s so full of drama we can’t help but feel it deserves a bigger stage than the one it’s currently occupying. They’re touring the single in March to promote it and we’re convinced they’ll do their best to deliver what is an astonishing piece of work, but we’re also sure it will feel like it’s missing a string quartet and backing choir. It’s not particularly fair on them, as it’s virtually impossible for them to skip the smaller stages, but this is a show that’s more West End than school production. And speaking of production, they’ll also benefit, more than most, from a professional studio, who can bring in real strings and increase the scale of each tune. Should they ever achieve this kind of useful expansion then they won’t just touch the sky, they’ll truly take flight. (MB)

GOLDEN FABLE – BLUEPRINTS

GOLDEN FABLE – ALWAYS GOLDEN

GOLDEN FABLE – THE CHILL PART 2