Erlend Oye

Erlend Øye is the geek spectacled half of Norway's Kings of Convenience, a two-man outfit that utilizes acoustic guitars, wistful vocals, and the softer side of computer music to make hipster pop ballads. Øye's success with Kings of Convenience, after the 2001 album Quiet Is the New Loud, drove his desire to make music, but his Convenience partner, Erik Glambek Bøe, was studying psychology and wasn't as keen to make music a career. Øye began working with fellow Norwegian group Röyksopp, and thus the Erlend Øye solo project was born. He began recording after an electronic music festival in Finland, where connections with the emerging scene prompted his interest in the indie dance movement. This led to the album Unrest, ten ambient dance songs recorded in ten cities with ten different collaborators. These collaborators include Soviet from Brooklyn, Warp star Prefuse 73, Schneider TM, and others. Although beats like those of Boards of Canada and other bedroom electronica artists predominate the album, the main focus is on Øye's melancholy, whispered musings and the occasional flourish of party-down kicks like the handclaps of "Every Party Has a Winner."Live, Øye often sings over his own tracks and has been known to dance with the audience while the beats drop sans his hands.