I could write a book about some of the artists and bands that have appeared in these pages and what their alter egos do in their alternative lives.
Most of them are academics believe it or not, either moonlighting in the music business or they are musos moonlighting as Professors in weird and wonderful subjects.
But we’ve never had one in which one of the duo here – Kasete Skeen is his name – is aiming to qualify for the Olympics in Alpine skiing – representing Tonga!
That makes the Jamaican national bobsleigh team, known for their inspiring debut at the 1988 Winter Olympics and the popular Disney film, Cool Runnings that arose from it seem quite tame.
Kasete, who is from London’s trendy Notting Hill (I lived there once, before it became trendy of course), looks like he should be playing rugby for Tonga, while the other half of the duo, Melina Malke, is a petite communications student with one of those angelic voices to die for.
Together, they work out of Åre in the north of Sweden, in Jämtland County, where the nearest big town is in Norway (Trondheim), which has a major ski resort (of course), and which is the location of a popular Swedish TV crime drama right now, I am led to believe.
The things you discover in Nordic Music Central. It is a veritable cornucopia of delights.
But the music is what we are about and you’ll like this EP title track, ‘Under the Sky’, enough to want you to check out the whole EP.
They describe themselves as an ambient pop duo and there is plenty of ambience in evidence. The song never breaks out of a self imposed gentle heavenly stroll but within it there is a slightly tachycardic heart beat in the background to keep up the suspense.
You really could be on that stairway to heaven as what sounds like a battalion of synthesisers helps you on your way. The adjective atmospheric is often banded around in these situations but ‘Under the Sky’ transcends that. It will take you to the stratosphere.
The five-track EP has been 10 years in the making but it won’t take you that much more than 10 minutes to devour it while you’re floating on a magic carpet. Get to it!
Find them on:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ilaheva.band/
Bandcamp: https://ilaheva.bandcamp.com/
(It’s possible they may be on Facebook as well but we aren’t at the moment so we’ve no way of knowing).
