A Scandinavian-Australian Indie-Pop dream, in which we encounter distorted electric guitars as well as exuberant string harmonies, loudness as well as softness and very, very big songwriting. Elva is the band of the Australian Elizabeth Morris and the Norwegian Ola Innset, who were known to their fans as the front man and woman of the indie pop bands Allo Darlin' and Making Marks. Winter Sun is their debut album together. Elva is Norwegian and means river and so everything seems to flow by itself and with a calm, natural force. The two musicians are also a couple in private and have a daughter together - you can tell from the album how well-rehearsed and familiar the artists are with each other. And yet the album is no navel-gazing, a multitude of other musicians have contributed to Winter Sun, the violinist Dan Mayfield (who has been in a close relationship with Elizabeth Morris Band Allo Darlin' for a long time) and the cellist Ofelia Ostrem Ossum are to be thanked for sumptuous string arrangements. The drummer of the band, Michael Collins, is also responsible for recording and producing the album. The band is completed by Diego Ivars on bass and Jorgen Nordby on drums. All in all, Winter Sun offers a carefully balanced sound spectrum with a mixture of acoustic and distorted electric guitars, classical keyboards, strings and complex, polyphonic vocal passages and convinces with the outstanding songwriting qualities of Elizabeth Morris and Ola Innset. It is a small masterpiece, recorded in the solitude of the Swedish forests and inspired by Scandinavian nature.
