Kings of Convenience are once again flirting with the singles charts, which is no mean achievement for a Norwegian duo whose name reflects the portability of their chosen style i.e. acoustic guitars and voices. We first featured then around the release of the album Quiet is the New Loud with the excellent Simon and Garfunkle-esque Winning a Battle Losing the War. With the new single upon us I get the chance to talk with Ereland, the tall bespectacled half of the duo.

The new single Failure, betraying Norwegian roots, London living and Mancunian connections, is a poignant ballad set to tug at the sleeves of your heart. Filled with an understated beauty and emotional depth, draped in strings and brass of the Tijuana kind with close harmonies in attendance, it oozes hypnotic charm. The additional instrumentation comes form fellow Nordic players as does a remix by Royksopp of the track I Don't Know What I Can Save You From. The Manc end of the deal is held up by Alfie, who add to a new version of the lead track and then there's a version of Joy Division's The Eternal, which takes the band back to the heady rock days as their previous incarnation Skog.

The Kings are blessed with a poetic appreciation of the minutiae of life, painting big pictures from small events. Although Failure has a melancholic air, it is also inculcates a relaxed positivity with a gentle reminder that "Failure is always the best way to learn", and further insisting "Have no fear your wounds will heal." At the same time a dream descends with graceful yearning; just in case your heart is too troubled by life's lessons, here's the escape hatch. All of this fits into three and a half minutes, further evidence of the more in less.

" The song is about living in London" reveals Ereland, "I moved there in 98 with another band called Peachfuzz and also my girlfriend. The two of us lived in this tiny flat in Surrey Quays and at some point neither of these things seemed to be working out. I ended up working in an indoor clothes market in Greenwich wondering why I was in London; the reason seemed to have faded. So it's about walking round trying to work out why you're where you are and trying to tell yourself that it's good that all these things are happening, as you will learn from it all and grow, at the same time being close to just giving up."

Ereland feels justifiably proud of the new arrangement of the song, his first attempt at scoring brass and strings. "It's about the contrasts of everyday situations and the dreams of someone who goes to the big city. I ended up commuting down from Camden to Greenwich and getting the over ground train out of Charring Cross. I spent a lot of time on the train, daydreaming, seeing the sun and the whole vast thing spread out around me. The song needed that big sound. I love the combination of strings and brass, but so often they can be used to try and make something of a song that isn't up to scratch. It was also an experiment with sounds we may use on the next album."

Given his experiences of London life it is probably not surprising to hear Ereland describe himself as, "living in the Northen Hemisphere. For the last two weeks I've been in San Francisco." He is very aware of the marked contrast between Norway and the UK. "I'm a pretty blunt person, honest and straight forward, but here there's all the politeness and small talk around a subject. It takes some time to get to the matter, always taking long cuts. It can be pretty frustrating."

He confesses, however, to have listened to and been influenced by a lot of English music. It's probably fair to say that the new acoustic movement, apart from being a journalistic contrivance, is a very UK scene. With such an array of budding new artists sharing a thoughtful introspection, this country is the only one that would try and focus them all together. But Ereland isn't concerned with the fashionable, citing recent comparisons with Slowdive on radio report sheets as "really cool, although we obviously aren't using all of the effects pedals and things I like their lush sound."

Ereland's musical tastes are wide and non too specific and he claims to like a lot of things that are "song and vocally oriented." He is sure that, "You have to go back to when I was 13-14 and listening to Suzanne Vega and Sting to find things that change the way I play music. These days there are things I like and things I don't like, but the foundations of my house are already built."

By contrast, the second King's track on the single, I Don't Know What I Can Save You From, has been remixed by fellow Bergenites, Royksopp and Ereland pronounces himself very happy with the result. "I think the band Royksopp are incredible and they chose the song themselves; I knew that it was going to be good, so there were no problems with handing it over."

But with the strings, the remixes and the willingness to experiment, is there anywhere that the King's won't go? "I'm very aware of when a band like Pink Floyd use their name after the most important member of the band quits and they start to sound like a covers-band version of themselves. I hate it when you have to qualify liking a band by saying up until such and such record. If Kings of Convenience ever stray too far away from what we have originally done I'll just change the name.

"Also there is so much music being released, what with the internet and everything, I just think if you're a musician you need to focus on something or really know what you are doing. Release CDs that are homogenous; this one works for waking up, this one works for parties. Don't try and replace people's entire record collection with one disc."

So with a handful of dates lined up in the UK, the good news is that the King's seem to be attracting a worldwide audience. "We seem to be selling a few records everywhere, reaching a certain type of people who connect with the same type of thing. It's just what I want." Ereland seems to be genuinely surprised by the level of success in Italy. "We seem to be really big and famous there, not that it means that we are selling lots of records, but we played there recently and everyone knew us, it was crazy."

Quiet and stealthy, in keeping with the music and true to themselves seems to be the only way that the Kings are going to go. Ereland has a sufficiently strong idea of how he wants the band to sound and is content to stick with the original game plan. You can guarantee that everything will be thought through and nothing 'just for the sake of it' will rear its head. Sit back and consider the majesty of Failure for a moment and know that this is a good thing. We'll keep tabs with their progress and even try and tempt them in for a session if time can be found.