An EP which has been happily sitting on our playlists for some weeks now comes from another Norwegian artist whom we haven't featured before, Marte Røyeng. And after a week listening to the a whole variety of submissions, from metal to jazz, it's been really lovely to come back to this EP, which has a soft charm to it I really like.
Marte Røyeng is an Oslo based singer songwriter, and whilst this is her debut, she has spent the last few years performing live all across the country, and one of the things that appealed to me when I first read about her is that she is a true multi-instrumentalist, playing piano, guitar and mandolin amongst other things. She even writes all the strings arrangements, which is a real skill that many songwriters don't tend to touch.
The result is the 'No-One' EP, and whilst this might not have the startling originality of our other featured band in the last week such as 'Water Boogie System', there is a style in her songwriting that makes her simply easy to listen to, with a willingness still to experiment with different instrumentation across the 3 tracks. I really like the opening to the title track 'No One', a delicate acoustic guitar always works for me, the vocals are quirky and the lyrics will make you think, if you listen to them hard enough.
You can watch the video to 'No One' here, which is the 1st in a 3 part trilogy, created by filmmaker Malin Longva.
A video to the 2nd track 'The Key' is also now available, and this is a clever track with a lilting soulful melody, subtle sliding guitars, and I love the piano contribution too. Watch and listen below.
The 3rd track 'While You Can' is possibly my favourite, the string arrangements work really well as they offer an added depth to the track that I really like. We look forward to seeing the video.
For more details please have a look at her webpage and Facebook.
Photo by: Sara Angelica Spilling