There must be something in the water in Sweden because as of late, the Scandinavian country has been producing a disproportionate amount of talented musicians. Dance-pop princess Lykke Li and the DJ/producing duo Bloodshy and Avant (currently masquerading as two-thirds of Miike Snow) spring immediately to mind. And here’s yet another. El Perro Del Mar (“the dog of the sea” in Spanish) is the solo project of Gothenburg, Sweden native Sarah Assbring. Her self-titled album was released in the UK in 2006 by Memphis Industries, the same label that brought Cymbals Eat Guitars’s debut album ‘Why There Are Mountains’ to Britannia last month.
Sarah’s latest release is a mini-album entitled ‘Love is Not Pop’ and the first single from it, ‘Change of Heart’, was released earlier this year. Have a listen.
MP3: El Perro Del Mar – Change of Heart
We also have live footage of ‘Heavenly Arms’, a El Perro Del Mar cover of the Lou Reed song, performed a couple months ago at Way Out West (a 3-day summer music festival in Gothenburg). Sarah says:
For some coincidental reason Lou Reed worked as some kind of muse for my new album, and perhaps especially this very song as the overall theme of it. I knew from the beginning I was going to do an album of love songs but as I was far from in an amorous state of mind at the time I realized, I couldn’t write anything that would be pretending I still believed in love. I wanted to though. Desperately. And upon reading the lyrics to ‘Heavenly Arms’ I realized he’d find the way to express this dark and desperate fight for love to survive against all odds. Although time and space had come between it – you keep fighting for it until the end. In some ways ‘Heavenly Arms’ helped me set the tone for the album. Performing it live is always very special. At Way Out West in Gothenburg this summer I had the chance to do it in a grand church with this huge cross hanging over my head. It was a strange and quite eerily beautiful feeling.
Following on from a DJ set at le poisson rouge in New York City Tuesday night, she will be supporting Peter, Bjorn, and John on their North American tour starting Saturday night in Washington, and TGTF will be there.
‘Love is Not Pop’, El Perro Del Mar’s latest release, is available now.
November 30th, 2009 at 3:26 pm
[...] recently wrote about the indie pop singer El Perro del Mar. With smoky made-up eyes and wearing a white t-shirt, [...]