Mona & Maria release debut album, 'My Sun'
Album release: My Sun by Mona & Maria
Release date: 21 October 2013
Label: Jansen Plateproduksjon
Listen: on Soundcloud
Mona & Maria are a fantastic new duo from Oslo. They are now here with their debut album My Sun - music which can be described as harmony-based pop with folk elements and great, and often grand, arrangements, but still with an acoustic feel. Their debut consists of 10 self-written songs.
Mona & Maria tell us about the debut: “Something was let loose after we started working on songs that did not fit the sound of the band we were in. We strongly felt the need to create something more personal, and we started making melodies to something obscure that had been lying dormant in both of us. After a band breakdown, came a new musical need that we found in each other. We both were terrified of singing alone, but together we sort of found a third person to make us feel secure. We began experimenting with harmonies. It became our way of being together. After several rounds and recordings of these songs, the record started to take shape, and we found our soundscape by working with dynamics. We wanted to have both the low-key and intimate, and the grandiose and dramatic, to have both darkness and light at once. We wanted to make unpretentious arrangements that enhanced the lyrics and the melodies, and not buried them. The result was My Sun.”
Mona Andersen (27) and Maria Knudsen (28) have already written songs together for many years, and both were central parts of the band Bazooka Boppers, with which they released two albums. After the band’s break-up in 2010, Mona and Maria continued playing together, and it worked out so well that they decided to move forward as a duo. The album was recorded at Engfelt & Forsgren Studio with Christian Engfelt (Cato Salsa Experience, Apricot and Turns, and as a producer Lionheart Brothers, Cheaters and more) as a producer, along with the girls themselves. Engfelt also plays the bass on a few of the songs.
Also participating on the album are some of Norway’s very best musicians:
- Martin Horntveth (Jaga Jazzist, The National Bank, Jonas Alaska) - percussion
- David Wallumrød (Jonas Alaska, Bjørn Eidsvåg med flere) - keys
- Eivind Staxrud (Raga Rockers) - guitars
- Olaf Olsen (Big Bang) - drums
- Knut Schreiner (Turboneger, Mirror Lakes, Kåre & The Cavemen) – guest guitar
- Marcus Bror Forsgren (Lionheart Brothers) – guest guitar
- Kaja Fjellberg Pettersen (Karpe Diem, Jens Carelius, Siri Nilsen) - cello
- Bendik Brænne (Dum Dum Boys, Los Plantronics) – saxophone and flute
- Henning Sansdalen (Le Corbeau, Hanne Hukkelberg) - bass
- Hans Friis (Dum Dum Boys, Los Plantronics) - trombone
- Members of KORK also participate on strings and bassoon.