Taken By Trees and El Perro Del Mar

An evening with two of Sweden's hottest contemporary singer/songwriters, both with arguably unusual nom de plumes! Up first tonight will be El Perro Del Mar, the nom de plume of Sarah Assbring, who recently released her third full-length album Love Is Not Pop.  Here's what El Perro Del Mar has to say about the new album: "Shortly after having finished touring with my second album 'From the Valley to the Stars' I started writing new songs. For some reason all the songs were about love and in particular that of the doomed kind. Unconsciously I think I knew what I was trying to tell myself. I'd spent some bad times in New York and some good times in Paris and both these cities have made a great imprint on this album and my current outlook on love. I've decided to call it 'Love Is Not Pop' - the songs on the album are all pop songs and they are all about love. But naturally, it is not all as simple as that. As much as pop can be love and vice versa - I'd like to believe that love goes so much deeper than a pop song. The title is of course also a play with words as well as a play with my persona up until this point. This album is also very much a way for me to look further into ways of writing and expressing myself - it definitely is a conscious step away from what I did on my last album. The mindset is darker and the soundscape mysteriously groovy… It’s not by pure chance I chose to do the Lou Reed song Heavenly Arms. Lou Reed, I would say, has been the spark and the main influence for me all throughout the work of Love Is Not Pop. In some way I would say his music for me in many ways is the very essence of what this album is about: the dream of a pure love in a dirty world. I have a memory from last summer when I spent some time in New York feeling pretty miserable. Lou Reed came to my rescue with this very song. At the same time I stumbled into this beautiful book by the photographer Bruce Weber and on one page alongside a photo of River Phoenix I found the precious and yet so immediate poem It is something to have wept written by G.K. Chesterton. I had just bought a Stratacaster that day and it took me 2 minutes to put music to those heavenly words. These two, Lou and the poem, was the spark to what later came to clearer life in Paris and which was finally realized in my studio in Gothenburg, Sweden."

Taken by Trees is the nom de plume of Victoria Bergsman, previously best known for her work with The Concretes and Peter Bjorn & John’s worldwide smash hit single ‘Young Folks’. Her new offering East of Eden (Rough Trade Records) follows in the footsteps of Taken By Tree’s debut album Open Field (2007).  Victoria took the unusual step of recording the album in Pakistan but the risk paid off. The result is an inspired and stunningly beautiful album that evokes images of Pakistan in a completely unique way. Recording engineer and supporting musician Andreas Söderström’s powerful, often minimal guitar work, and Victoria’s sublime, mysterious vocals and enigmatic lyrics, powered by the sounds, beats and rhythms of genuine local Pakistani musicianship combine to create a magical musical concoction.

Tickets are on sale now from the Cedar Ticketline (612-338-2674 ext 2), Cedar outlets, and online at Ticketweb.