photo by Michelle Berg
We've written a few times in Nordic Music Review about the really good music blogs in the Nordic region which cover music specific to their own country. Good Because Danish is one of these, and a few weeks back they premiered a track by Danish band MALMØ entitled 'You', the first from their album 'We Come From the Stars' which is due for release in September this year.
MALMØ is a band based around Danish songwriter Maria Malmø, they come from the musically prolific Aarhus, and the band also comprises Jens Mikkel Madsen, Andreas Skamby, Mathias Hunter and Asger Jakobsen. MALMØ released an EP about 2 years ago entitled 'Time and Tide Wait for No Man', which I struggled to track down on streaming services, but there is a nice live YouTube version of the title track that's quite easy to find if you're interested. But the band set up appears to have developed further since then, and the output is a really promising single which bodes well for the album release.
'You' is a lovely track, which has a charming laid back feel, but also showcases the beautifully pure vocals of Maria Malmø. It was written by her whilst literally sitting in the shadow of the Himalayan mountains, in northern India close to the border with Tibet. And actually, once you've listened to it a few times, you can imagine her sitting up there singing it - the lyrics are based on a simple enough idea, but are expressed in such a personal and thoughtful way which makes them totally believable. My other attraction to this track is the overall musical arrangements, not over complex but from the bass at the beginning through to the instrumental section at the end, everything is measured and well constructed.
Listen to 'You' here:
With such an appealing voice, Maria Malmø is clearly going to be compared with some of the other wonderful Nordic female vocalists out there, but we have no need to head down that route. Instead we will wait patiently for 'We Come From the Stars", which is due to be released by Songcrafter Music on September 1st 2017. I'm pretty sure that her music and voice will speak for itself.