Music
Press
The fairly bizarrely-named Foreign Slippers, AKA Gabrielle Frödén, is a Swedish singer-songwriter – and currently, a pretty obscure one. But on the basis of this EP, Oh Death, I for one wouldn’t bet against her fragile arrangements and beautiful voice helping her become more widely known.
These five songs are sparse – small, fairly brief tales of heartache, dreaming, and meditations on (unsurprisingly) death. These tales are heard from that aforementioned voice, and wrapped up in delicate piano, subtle acoustic guitar, gently brushed drums, and intermittent washes of strings, along with all kinds of other fragile instrumental touches. The pace is steady across the EP - a kind of slow, meditative journeying feel, although “Don’t Go” does have a curious, waltzing lilt to it. This isn’t a record that makes big, bold statements – neither lyrically nor musically – but it does have an intoxicating, quiet appeal. This is the kind of music that should given the fullness of your intention, so that its uncomplicated, pretty instrumentation and Frödén’s warm, versatile voice can shine through.
Opener “Packed The Car” contains a terrific image - “I used to dream I could fall / Through my bedroom wall / If I held the right thought / Long enough” - that is delivered with as much panache as it was written. Its twinkling piano notes and plodding, snapping drums make it an almost ghostly, haunting way to start the record. “Don’t Go” is a little more guitar-driven, but to call it “driven” at all would be a bit of a misnomer. It has another magnificently fragile chorus that makes you think the disc will shatter if you turn it up too loud, and the intensity of its slow waltz increases ever so slowly as the song’s tender break-up plays out.
The title track, “Oh Death” builds in a similar way, eventually almost flirting with the potential possibility of a truly epic closing section – but that’s not the Foreign Slippers style, and its admirably restrained conclusion is a genuine highlight of a deep, moving set of songs.
Oh Death is subtle, sparse, and quiet – but it is also moving, dramatic, wonderfully sung, and a very impressive piece of work indeed. - The Line Of Best Fit
Foreign Slippers', otherwise known as Gabi Froden, children’s illustrator and songwriter, track 'Packed The Car' is a haunting folk lullaby that sounds like Fleetwood Mac and Tracy Chapman holed up in a lonely shack in a Scandinavian forest. - Indiecator
Discography
Oh Death EP (Izumi Records)
Photos
Bio
Caught up in creaking tales of longing and mortality, Foreign Slippers (aka Gabrielle Fröden) makes music of unnerving beauty. Hailing from Norrköping, Sweden her captivating debut EP,
“Oh Death” is absorbing and effortless in it’s warmth. Stories of love, death and bad dreams rest as uneasy bed-fellows here.
EP opener Packed The Car deals in fantasy like some cine film
footage of summers past springing to life in front of your eyes.
Wistfully leading with the line “I used to dream I could fall through my bedroom walls” the song shuffles with beckoning charm wearing an apparent love of songwriters like Kristin Hersh and Gilian Welch tucked just under it’s sleeve while all the way maintaining a truly unique delivery.
The five track EP released August 4th on Izumi continues on in the same way with other highlights including the heartbreakingly tender Don’t Go set with eye catching, innovative arrangements
(think Sufjan Stevens conducting a ghostly Victorian band), lying below Gabi’s stunning vocal.
In Gabi’s own words, Foreign Slippers influences are an enigmatic combination of:
“mother’s classical guitar, long summers building tree huts in the woods with brothers and sisters, and family singalongs around an old piano on holiday.”
Touring and gigging over the last year with the likes of Beth Rowley, Iain Archer, and label mate Burning Codes has developed Foreign Slippers into a compelling must see act. As charming and charismatic live as the music on her debut EP suggests Gabrielle Fröden will usher you into a world of pump organs, music boxes and black birds from which you’ll are unwilling to return.
Links
