After an enforced break it's lovely to be able to return and introduce you to an artist who's brand new to the Nordic Music scene. Peri Winkle is a Norwegian based artist, born in Australia, who debuted at Bergen's fabulous Vill Vill Vest last year, an event which has seen many Nordic Music Review favourites play previously, including Tuvaband, Mall Girl, happydieyoung and many many more.
But particularly alert readers will know there's another connection here too in that Claudia Cox, the artist behind Peri Winkle, also plays in Major Parkinson, whom she has opened for at live gigs, and that she's actually been working on solo material for quite some time. But it was a freak near death aerobatics accident in September 2021 which completely changed her perspective on life, and pushed her into developing the project further, collaborating alongside musician, producer and songwriter Peter Kolsung (known better for his work with Sigrid) in the process.
We always like music here that creates new genre descriptions, and debut single 'Ouroboros' is described as 'experimental near death glitchcore pop', which doesn't quite trip off the tongue as easily as our favourite 'evil shoegaze boogie-woogie', as per The Janitors, but suggests that there is something really different going on. The darkness of the track will hit you early, lyrically describing the feelings after accident -"the existential bomb about losing every part of who you are just to rediscover yourself again". Yet the undoubted quirkiness of Peri Winkle shines through ("I'm friends with the spiders, the snakes and the lizards...."), and the highlight is the explosive catchy chorus that richochets somewhere between darkness and light, as well as despair and optimism.
There's so much going on here, and the lyrics still really require closer scrutiny (what's that about taxidermy?), and it leaves us intrigued about future releases. We're promised elements of rap, art pop, metal, hyperpop, existentialism, prog and much more, but the genre is irrelevant when you can write such memorable and catchy tunes, and Peri Winkle clearly has the ability to write the best of them.