"Stunning," is what that bastion of culture, The Sunday Times, called the music made by two unheralded 24 year-old Norwegians recently. "A word-of-mouth classic waiting to happen," was the opinion of the Independent on Sunday, and Sky Magazine summed it up as: "Something to ease you through the dark nights…"

"I think it's going to take a very long time in England before we reach any shade of fame," says Erlend Oye, one of the Norwegians and one half of the Kings of Convenience. "I don't expect to go in the charts."

The Kings' music has been slowly but surely growing on people since the release of their intimate, acoustic Live In A Room EP last October. The album, Quiet Is The New Loud, was released in January to a flurry of acclaim and while it didn't bother the charts too fiercely, it is a record that will gain more and more fans as time goes on.

"One of the reasons I don't think we're going to make a big splash in a quick time is that it takes a lot of time with our music," says Erlend. "If you force this music down their throats, they're not going to listen to it in the right way."

He's right - their fragile acoustic anthems are not the types to battle it out with Britney for blanket coverage on your local shitty radio station - but they are the type to win a loyal and not too small following of fans enticed by their sublime balance of emotion, tunes and storytelling. In other words, they're good.

"The reason I made this music was because I always wanted to hear more of it," says Erlend. "It's the music that makes me feel very peaceful and speaks to me more than other music. Of course it's a bit sad but it's what I think is beautiful. You need music that you can relate to at any time, whatever mood you're in.

"Many times it's just about being in Norway, having spare time. I'm always trying to make a photograph of a mood. One of the best things in Bergen, where I come from, is in the summer when the sun comes up pretty early and leaves pretty late. If you go out and you've been to an after-party so you go home at 5am - and it's been raining and the sun is coming up and there's nobody in town. You walk through the whole town and there's nobody there, it's all well clean because it's just been raining and it's so fantastic. We try to make music that sounds like this."

Their Norwegian influence is crucial as, he says, it's not all death metal but their type of music is big back home, where Leonard Cohen is a superstar. As indeed they are - having recently hit the top. "There are a lot of singer/songwriter people who sing in Norwegian who we're quite influenced by," he says. "Being Norwegian is definitely in our spirit and the music we make.

"It's very, very classic, what we're aiming at. It's just very classic songwriting like all the songs that appear on the radio because they're evergreens."

Erland's partner in making this classic music is Erik Glambek Boe - and yes, they did actually meet when they both got the final of a school map-drawing competition. Erlend won thanks to his ability to draw a map of the world from memory in no time ("If anyone asks me to draw one, it would be my pleasure," he says). Erland moved to Manchester for a year, where he had soon-to-be legendary strumming sessions with Badly Drawn Boy and Alfie, and almost signed to their extremely cool label, Twisted Nerve. But they didn't, and instead signed to the even cooler Source UK - the British arm of the label that launched Air, Daft Punk and Phoenix.

"There's a lot more between us and Air and us and other singer-songwriters," Erlend reckons. "It's got a little bit of sunshine in it, if you know what I mean. We try to keep it optimistic.

"I'm very happy with the collection of songs [on Quiet…]. I particularly like Side A - the first 6 songs. A very nice little musical journey that goes in the small hills and down the valley and up again and puts you down in the meadow."

You'll be able to experience this musical mystery tour for yourself when they play a tour - they had to cancel several dates recently due to illness - but they'll be playing a rescheduled tour "very soon". For now - it's the quiet before the storm.

by Ian Youngs