Silje Nes

Silje Nes, "The Grass Harp" (DOWNLOAD)
Silje Nes, "Crystals" (DOWNLOAD)

Miranda Lange from PMA PR first e-mailed me about Silje Nes about a month ago -- I don't know why, but I hesitated to act on her e-mail. To be honest, I'm not used to being e-mailed by PR people, I typically get e-mails from either bands/artists or labels (or I don't get e-mailed by anyone at all.) So, I let Miranda's e-mail sit while I went about my usual business of listening to the same mix CD 30 or 40 times in the car & then I got another e-mail from Miranda and then I got another (persistence and follow up is also something new to me.)

This morning I finally gave in and listened to Opticks, Silje's latest release. Opticks is Silje's second album and like her first it's home recorded and works within layers upon layers of sound, blending organic and inorganic elements to create pop songs that feel like cocoons. Opticks is not the type of music I typically listen to, so it's hard for me to come up with solid points of comparison, but I think that if you imagined a mix between Björk's Vespertine and Lykke Li's Youth Novels, you wouldn't be too off the mark.

Final Thought: It's fall here in Cleveland and soon it will be winter. Opticks seems destined to be a winter album -- something for crisp, colorless mornings spent indoors with a laptop and your headphones.

Order Opticks direct from FatCat Records here (US release is this coming Tuesday, 10/12; it's already available globally.)
Stream more songs by Silje and check out her UK/Europe tour dates on her MySpace

Silje Nes, "The Grass Harp" (DOWNLOAD)
Silje Nes, "Crystals" (DOWNLOAD)