We're stumbling towards our main annual break of the year, and inevitably the final week has become a complex mad rush of holiday packing, 'real' work responsibilities and organisation for our Nordic Music Live series in September / October. So apologies for the lack of posts this week, but I think the first track we're featuring is such a beautifully written song that I like to think we'll be forgiven pretty quickly. 'Sawdust & Rust' is collaboration of Swedish singer-songwriter Patrick Rydman and Faroese singer-songwriter Benjamin Petersen, and over a period of 3 years they've worked sometimes a Faroese studio and sometimes virtually to create and release an album entitled 'Leaving a Memory'.
The album is an interesting fusion of styles, embedded in a traditional folk storytelling tradition, but with influences from blues to Americana, but with the common factor being easily listening melodies and thoughtful 'real life' inspired lyrics. But track that we want to particularly feature is the lovely 'The Shade of Your Skin', a gorgeously constructed song which opens with just an acoustic guitar, and then layers on strings and the most lovely vocal melody. In the midst of it there are the subtlest glimpses of melancholy which remind me strangely of 'A Lady of a Certain Age' by The Divine Comedy, I think maybe that's because central to the song is the story, and possibly the way the instrumentation develops the track. Anyway it's such a beautiful song.
This is 'The Shade of Your Skin':
Please try and give the whole album 'Leaving a Memory' a listen too, I particularly like the title track, it was released a couple of months back and is available on all good streaming services - if there's such a thing as a 'good streaming service'. And you can find out more about the artists on the links below.