Smerz is the duo of Norwegians Henriette Motzfeldt and Catharina Stoltenberg who have put out a string of compelling singles and EPs, most recently with 2018’s Have fun. Today they return with a tease of a new project simply titled Believer, and as yet no indication whether it’s an album, EP or some other format – but for now we have a trailer and two tracks, “The favourite” and “Rap interlude”.
Motzfeldt takes vocal duties on “The favourite”, drawing on her years as a choir girl to sing operatically over syntheszied harpsichord provided by Stoltenberg. Whether intentional or not, “The favourite” has the same modern-weirdness-meets-period-styling of the Yorgos Lanthimos film of the same name. “Rap interlude” is a brief 36 seconds, and uses a humming sample instead of a beat, adding to the closed-in feeling of the track, which captures an uncertain anxiety in its pleading words: “I’m working it out / I’m trying babe / I’m tryna figure out.”
In total, the pair of tracks barely come to more than two minutes, which is truly a tease – but there’s more to be explored in the ‘trailer’ (video) by Benjamin Barron and Bror August below.
Hopefully we’ll find out soon what exactly Believer is and when it’ll be released. Be the first to know by following Smerz on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
