Steve and Ed

Steve and Ed - Where You Belong (1975)

cf.

Kings of Convenience- Winning a Battle, Losing the War (2001)

The Norwegian word Koselig stresses the importance of cosiness, simplicity, intimacy and contentedness, all particularly relevant when facing dark Nordic winters.  I guess that the process and pleasure of putting on a record at home is consistent with that concept. 

In 2001, Bergen's Kings of Convenience’s debut album, "Quiet is the New Loud"  felt out of time.  It was released the same year the iPod was launched, mp3 file sharing was taking off, and vinyl sales were almost non-existent.  It had a striking album sleeve photo of the duo, Erlend Oye and Erik Glambek Boe together with Boe’s girlfriend, outside a rural cabin.  The colours of their clothing, harmonious with the local landscape, seemed to offer a fresh and welcoming, alternative perspective.  Inside the gatefold, the songs’ bookish lyrics were printed in full,  giving space for reflective consideration.  The record itself, could be viewed as achronistic, with carefully crafted music that slowed the pace down and was designed to be listened in sequence, not shuffled.  Dropping the needle onto the grooves of the first track, "Winning a Battle Losing the War",  the warmth of their acoustic guitars and whispered honeyed harmonies radiate out from the speakers. 

Outwith the hip, knowing title, the record was a disarmingly earnest work of stripped back indie folk-pop, with elements of bossa nova, west coast jazz and easy listening.  These eclectic music forms were still filtered through a Nordic lens, creating a strong, consistent sense of place and seasonality.

If "Quiet is the New Loud" was created in a time of post millennium angst and rapidly changing technology, then 25 years earlier, in similar fashion, Steve and Ed referenced Alvin Toffler’s “Future Shock” which predicted the information overload that leaves people disconnected. Their rare, obscure, privately pressed "Dream Song" album from 1975, resonates with the same sensibilities as "Quiet is the New Loud".  Two beguiling, understated records that provide sounds of sanctuary from the pace, excesses and stresses of modern life.

"Where You Belong" is a beautiful, quiet celebration of friendship and returning home.  Like all the tracks on "Dream Song", rather than a Californian studio, it was recorded in an Los Angeles church with sparse yet warm, gently echoing acoustics, a near reverential hush with space for the songs to breath.  Steve and Ed’s harmonies aren’t flash or showy, rather they sing intimately, with respect for each other.

"Dream Song" is full of gorgeous, single take songs, with simple, sensitive and imaginative arrangements, every note serving a purpose.  Like Kings of Convenience, the music comes from a variety of influences, as much pop as folk. Dreams fulfilled and unfulfilled are a major theme, as too are the seasons, and with them, the inevitability of natural change.  "When I Was a Boy" is structured like a Scottish psalm and brings to mind the BMX Bandits or Teenage Fanclub playing intimate acoustic shows in and around Glasgow, rather than the music that was around southern California in the mid 70s.  Songs of a northern latitude, out of time and place. 

I can find no biographical information about Steve (Hicks) and Ed (Rosiek), but the church they recorded it in, (and appear to have been members of)  the Angelica Lutheran, is in impoverished downtown Los Angeles rather than up high in Laurel Canyon where the music elite of the time hung out.  Angelica was the church of the Swedish community and therefore it is possible that this cultural influence imparted a Nordic sensibility to their craft.  Whatever, this is a rare wonder, a  genuine, subtle, slow burner of a record to help keep you warm on a cold, dark winter’s night.