El Perro Del Mar / S/t

Memphis Industries

In 2003 a girl from Sweden named Sarah went to a Spanish island to sit on the beach and muse about her life. She'd been making music as long as she could remember but nothing quite matched the melodies that lived in her dreams. This depressed her. In fact, she hadn't written anything for several years which left her feeling empty.  Picture her looking out to sea, to the coast of Africa. Suddenly, out of nowhere, a dog appears on the shore. "Something about this moment just spoke to me," says Sarah. "I kept seeing that dog all week. When I came home I felt better."   Her muse returned. Back home in Gothenburg, she was inspired to write a bunch of songs that harked back to the Brill Building era, the youthful emotions of Gerry Goffin and Carole King -- filtered through gauze, through dreams, circular and comforting. Under the name El Perro Del Mar (in tribute to that salty sea dog), Sarah released her self-titled debut in Sweden in March 2004.  The lead off-track "Candy" and the heartbreaking "Party" exemplify the El Perro Del Mar sound: minimal ambience, an acoustic wash, a boom of timpani, some rippling chimes. Kind of like a lo-fi Phil Spector production.   "El Perro del Mar simply is the easiest and most direct way for me to say and do the things I cannot do in real life." Sarah explains. "To live inside the music ... if just for three minutes, or the length of a standard pop song, is what makes the hours of the day worthwhile." 

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