Feldberg/ Don’t Be A Stranger

Feldberg
Don’t Be A Stranger
(Kitsune)

Imagine the scene. It’s a lazy Sunday afternoon during a long hot summer. You’re hangin’ out with your homies in the hazy sunshine, the smell of freshly cut grass sweetening the air. As you lie there rolling a blade of straw between your teeth you realise there’s something missing - this perfect afternoon needs a soundtrack. You need music to suit the mood but your Nan has borrowed all your chill out mix CDs and you have far too much good taste and self respect (you are after all reading Artrocker) to listen to something as tedious as James Blunt or Coldplay. So what do you do? Well you could do a lot worse than cue up this long player from Icelandic duo Feldberg.
‘Don’t Be A Stranger’ features bluesy, lounge style vocals from chanteuse Rosa Isfeld floating over the top of lush instrumentation ranging in styles from the electronica infused ‘House of Fun’ to the folksy ‘Farewell’. Being a real sucker for call and response style boy-girl duets, it was a joy to hear gorgeous forthcoming single ‘Dreamin’ ("will you be my everything/I’ll treat you like a real king"), but it’s all good, there’s no filler here.
Rosa and band mate Eberg (already a successful artist in his own right in Europe) have created a cracking collection of songs. If there’s any justice in the world this stunning debut will be this year’s soundtrack to the summer.