Mona and Maria - My Sun

'My Sun'is the debut album from Norwegian duo Mona Andersen and Maria Knudsen. The Oslo pair have been collaborating for nearly a decade, formerly working together in the band Bazooka Boppers with whom they released two albums prior to disbanding in 2010. The album opens with title track ‘My Sun’, a lush and dense fusion of electronica and folk featuring some superb vocals by Mona and Maria. The track sounds, as does much of the album, like a curious medley of eras, with the vocals, strongly reminiscent of Nico or Grace Slick, striking a counterpoint with more contemporary instrumentation. While the vocal style and lyrical theme take their lead from late-60’s style psychedelia, the music is much more recent in influence, bringing to mind the quieter moments of Goldfrapp or the electro-organic textures of ‘The Innocence Mission’. ‘Venus’ is, for me, the outstanding track of the album. It is an almost neo-pagan anthem, eerily unsettling and yet compelling, and reminiscent, in mood and musical texture to Paul Giovanni’s ‘The Wicker Man’ soundtrack. It has an almost fairy-tale like quality, with looping and swirling psychedelia backing a vocal which could be delivering a nursery rhyme penned by Edgar Allan Poe. The sensual shuffle of ‘Babyflowers’ adds a spicy, almost Latin feel to proceedings, while ‘Let the Light’ channels Bjork’s ‘Vespertine’ through Massive Attack with its brooding presence, pulsing bass and dense, lush textures. My only criticism of the album would be with the track ‘Silent Summer’. The song itself is a cracker, but its Byrds-like jangle and general jauntiness places it at odds, I felt, with the more sombre mood of the remainder of the record. It is, however, a small niggle rather than a full-blown irritation. 'My Sun' evokes the darker side of psychedelia, and yet the album as a whole is a genuinely uplifting and enjoyable experience. By eschewing the cliché-ridden bombast of Sigur Ros in favour of more personal and less turgid tapestry of sound, Mona and Maria have crafted a thoroughly engaging and compelling album, and a sound which, I am sure, will be mimicked by artists who do not share the creativity and craft of this hugely exciting pair.