Soft as Snow

The Norwegian-born, Berlin-based duo Soft as Snow will release their debut album ‘Deep Wave’ on April 6th, via Houndstooth. It was created by Soft as Snow members Oda Egjar Starheim and Øystein Monsen, with additional mixing and production by WIFE of Tri Angle Records. 

 

Their oblique leftfield pop recalls Cabaret Voltaire, Throbbing Gristle, deep Detroit techno, 90s IDM, Fever Ray, cold wave and the ‘Mutazione’ compilations, but is simultaneously fresh, original and groundbreaking, crowned with Oda’s esoteric and otherworldly voice.

 

‘Deep Wave’ follows two EPs for the same label - and as with those, the duo still avoid laptops, preferring analogue machinery, samplers, live drums and processed guitars - but this album marks a creative development, with their sound now deeper, more detailed and less simplistic than before. 

 

Soft as Snow are two people making music with little acknowledgement for conventions of the outside world and ‘Deep Wave’ gives a peek into the sound-environment they’ve created. It’s genuinely original music, governed by its own unconventional logic, language and creatively free sense of play that’s simultaneously childlike, fun, harrowing, angular and dark. 

 

 

Previous praise:

 

"Their music has an inner strength that curls and coils skyward, shooting lasers into infinity” The FADER

 

“Wild, impressionistic electronic music that splits the difference between Purity Ring’s exquisite beat-driven pop songs and The Knife’s brain-blasting experiments” Stereogum

 

“Soft as Snow will gladly slot their atmospheric, expansive synthpop right next to the bleeding edge of dance music. It’s a mutually beneficial relationship” Tiny Mix Tapes

 

“Listening can be a mesmerizing experience, showcasing an idiosyncratic brand of euphoric pop that meshes a pervasive air of the uncanny” Dummy

 

“Raining down a storm of analog synths, esoteric drum machines and strange samples. Ecstatic, electro-visceral productions” Impose 

 

“Psych-out pop” Dazed