As regular readers will know, we've adopted Indiefjord as our favourite Nordic festival because whilst the practicalities of actually getting there have so far been too much for us, it's still an aspiration to make it to the beautiful location one day - and we kind of contributed last year courtesy of 'The Wit' performing after the lovely Indiefjord organisers first read about them in Nordic Music Review. Sjur Lyseid from 'The Little Hands of Asphalt' was inspired in a slightly different way by Indiefjord, because he wrote his latest track 'No Reception' after playing there a couple of years back, even if the journey to get their on a sweltering summers day in a car with no air-con and a chain smoking driver was slightly more challenging.
But we also need to offer an introduction to 'The Little Hands of Asphalt', because there have been no releases for 8 years now, and of course being in just our 6th year we've never had chance to write about them. Formed by Sjur Lyseid, they released 2 albums 'Floors' and 'Leap Years' to a great reception, and they're both timeless, well written indie pop albums that are definitely worth listening to. 'No Reception' is from a brand album to be released soon (in a leap year) and it's such a lovely warm indie pop melodic song, that I'm convinced everyone will love as soon as they hear it.
Even more impressively, 'No Reception' features none other than 'Elizabeth Morris' from indie pop favourites 'Allo Darlin', who by coincidence I first saw perform when they appeared at the Derbyshire 'Indietracks' festival in around 2008 (although no doubt someone will email me to point out they never played there that year), and it was that festival which help inspire Indiefjord. 'No Reception' is a written as a roadtrip song, where dreams of love and missing loved ones are interspersed with memories of the trip. And it's a pretty much perfect indie pop track thanks to the irresistible tunes, with the joint vocal duties courtesy of Elizabeth Morris an absolute delight.
This is 'No Reception':
So it may have taken us 6 years to write about 'The Little Hands of Asphalt', but with an album due to be released soon I can absolutely guarantee our next feature will be far sooner.
This years Indiefjord festival will take place on 11th and 12th July, and more details can be found here - the 1st artists for the festival to be announced are 'Avind' from Norway and the amazing Nick Garrie.