El Perro Del Mar with The Submarines

In 2003 a girl from Sweden called Sarah went to a Spanish island to sit on the beach and muse about her life. She'd been making music as long as she
could remember but nothing quite matched the melodies that lived in her dreams. This depressed her. In fact, she hadn't written anything for several years which left her feeling "really odd, kind of empty."

Picture her, if you will, looking out to see, to the coast of Africa. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a dog appears on the shore. "Something about this moment just spoke to me", says Sarah. "I kept seeing that dog all week. When I came home I felt better."

Her muse returned. Back home in Gothenburg, she was inspired to write a bunch of songs that harked back to the Brill Building era, the youthful emotions of Goffin and King, only filtered through gauze, through dreams, circular and comforting. Shockingly so. Under the name El Perro Del Mar (in tribute to the salty sea dog), Sarah's first EP came out in Sweden in March 2004. Lead off-track Candy and the heartbreaking Party pinned down the El Perro Del Mar sound: minimal sound, an acoustic wash, a boom of tympani, some rippling chimes. Kind of a lo-fi Phil Spector production. "Come on over baby, there's a party going on," a gentle desperation expressed in three or four lines. "This is all I need to say" she shrugs. "I just want to express a feeling in a very condensed way. Like the blues tradition, where you lament on something and repeat it until it goes away."

Now signed to Memphis Industries - home of The Go! Team, Dungen, The Pipettes and Field Music - in Sweden Sarah is already a loved and critical acclaimed artst. She built her reputation via the internet, swapped cdrs and word of mouth. From these DIY beginnings came three EPs and a split 7” single released on the Secretly Canadian label with fellow Gothenburger, the urbane Jens Lekman ("I was really, really thrilled when he contacted me") were compiled to make the El Perro Del Mar debut album. An album written, produced and arranged by Sarah. Initially she had wanted her music to be only downloadable from her Swedish record label Hybris website. "It's important to me not to work against your listener" she explains. Then again, it's good to have "something for real, something you can feel and hold in your hand."

El Perro Del Mar - blue on blue, heartache on heartache – is something very real
and special.

"Over spare, hazy arrangements of Brill Building-style melodies, this
Swedish chanteuse (a k a Sarah Assbring) haltingly whispers of
isolation and heartache, while her own angelic backup vocals try to
cheer her up on her striking self-titled album." - New York Times

"These eleven tracks ache with longing and loneliness....a voice that recalls Julee Cruise's spectral quiver, over ghostly girl-group melodies." - Rolling Stone

Opening will be beautifully poppy minimalist acoustic duo The Submarines!

Sonific SongSpot: Peace and Hate

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