There is something about a husky female voice. You know, the type that suggests she washes razor blades down with a bottle of whisky; that just does it for me and especially when she fades the last syllable as if she’s running out of breath.
It isn’t quite that dramatic though with Orange Oak’s Filippa Frisell, who has slightly lighter tones and who vocally channels Norway’s Sol Heilo excellently and I can’t think of a higher accolade than that.
The other half of the Stockholm-based duo is Erik Olsson, together making up a disparate couple who found common ground through deep soul searching conversations and the songwriting that emerged from them.
They entered the business in an unusual fashion, when, while working on their debut recording, they began uploading re-writes of classic Swedish songs, translating them into English and making them their own, which had the effect of having them heard well beyond Sweden, courtesy of social media.
I know quite a few bands in the UK that would be quite content to make a career out of covers, and have done, but I’m glad to report that Orange Oak haven’t been tempted to sidestep their unique songwriting as evidenced by this first single, ‘Garden Green Eyes’, which is also the first of five others before debut EP, ‘almost, I thought to myself’, is released in September.
I mentioned Heilo previously and do so again unapologetically as ‘Garden Green Eyes’ has all the hallmarks of her poignant, plaintive ballads, replete with melody and harmony, and which typically focus on the march of time and having to deal with its consequences.
In this instance,
“Cause those roots run deeper than I could imagine/Water the memories and watch how it happens
Over and over it’s a chain reaction/But I’m always coming home
It’s the only place I know”.
The only thing I can possibly find wrong with it is that I was expecting a final verse, or verse/chorus. The mainly instrumental outro is almost a minute long.
But in the wider scheme of things that doesn’t count against a debut song that suggests they’ve been writing and recording for a lot longer than they have.
They have also been perfecting their stage presence, having opened for numerous artists including Hazlett, who has featured in NMC several times.
Having now performed their first ever headline show in Sweden they are also set to open for Hayden Calnin and to play several headline gigs of their own across Europe.
And there may be more European and UK dates later in the year.
(Continues after the Spotify link)
Find them on:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/orangeoakmusic/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61556980807961
