Two Go Plaid in Ibiza

Norwegian acoustic duo Kings of Convenience astounded the guitar wielding community earlier this year with their delicately beautiful debut album "Quiet is the New Loud", proving that you don;t need a single amp to calmly electrify an audience. They have since built a reputation whose scariest element is a slightly intimidating knowledge of geography. So what the hell are they doing in Ibiza? Becky Hogge investigate (NB: all quotes to be read in bemused Scandinavian accent).

The first conversation I have with Eirik Glambek Bae, one half of acoustic duo Kings of Convenience, is about spear fishing. Apparently Eirik's brother has devoted his leisure time for many years now to hunting a Norwegian fish whose mouth can expand to such a size that it is able to swallow a human leg. Eirik proceeds to do an impression of this fish, which makes his impossibly beautiful girlfriend (who, when she's not following her internationally acclaimed musician lover around Europe, is studying to become a doctor) burst into impossibly beautiful giggles. Talk slowly turns to the beams on the ceiling of their hired Ibizan villa - are these original, or are they a more modern interpretation of the Spanish style? Which begs the further question - what is this gentle, articulate Norwegian doing in the middle of the world's Mecca for dalliance and debauchery, and more importantly, for electronic music?

After the highly successful release of their debut album "Quiet is the New Loud", wherein bespectacled broadsheet music reviewers who gave up writing about electronica when they had their first child enthuse about the New Acoustic Movement (or, enchantingly, NAM) and tell us that we'll all be using our drum machines as coffee tables before long, Kins of Convenience are releasing a remix album entitled "King's of Convenience versus...". The release includes work by fellow Vikings Royksopp, Erot and Evil Tordivel, as well as Mancunian beat-jugglers Alfie, Andy Votel, Riton and Bamboo Soul. And the outcome makes those harbingers of hush look, well, a little silly. As Eirik puts it later "It's not a dance record, but it kind of appeals more to people who need beats a rhythm and I suppose that's the logic behind us coming here."

To understand just how ridiculous Kings of Convenience look in Ibiza, it is necessary to meet Erlend Oye, all six-foot-four of him, sprouting brown nylon trousers, red NHS specs and matching bright red hair. What he lacks in Eirik's studiousness, he makes up for in grinning gregarity, and when, later on, I'm trying to spot him on he crowded dancefloor of Pacha, I'm reminded of playing Where's Wally. Erlend, unlike, Eirik, wants to be a star, yet in moments of silence his bashfulness is revealed as he circles his eyes across at you. When he finally takes off his trousers to go swimming he exposes a pair of off-white briefs, only exchanging them for a pair of H&M trunks ("They're a very good shop, don;t you think - of course they're Scandinavian...") as an afterthought, once the cameras start rolling.

Eirik and Erlend met at a Norwegian inter-schools geography competition, aged eleven. The both live in the town of Bergen, on the coast of the North Sea about 200 miles west of Oslo. This is also the home of the other Norwegian artists who worked on "Versus..." - Erlend puts the productivity of the area down to its inhabitants' honesty and willingness to accept criticism. The Royksopp remix is possibly the most exciting on the album - in it the guitar track is transformed from the sub-arctic crispness of the original into the kind of echoey Baleria that might reserve it a prime spot in Jon Sa Trincha's record box.

Erlend jokes: "They are the new Neptunes, the new Men at Work (I think he means Masters). They've had various different names but as Royksopp this is when they are definitely going to come out and make themselves known to the world. I just think they're such talented producers - not just as a band - they understand so many aspects of what they're doing. Eirik agrees "Yeah, they've done a very good job, they've been very thorough. They were given the parts of the recording, all the tracks, and they took the guitar track, cut it into pieces, and put it together again." Worth a mention too is the funky collaboration with Tore Kroknes, aka DJ Erot, before his tragic death two months ago. Says Eirik "I think if he were still alive we would have, or I would have, continued doing other things with him. That was a very fruitful collaboration."

The picture of acoustic musicians working closely with electronic artists reflects the scene which Erlend stumbled upon back in early 1999 whilst in Manchester. It was here he met Alfie, who do a cover of the Kings' track "Failure" on the album. "Alfie is a band that really helped us get where we are today." Through Alfie they were introduced to Andy Votel and Badly Drawn Boy. So why didn't they sign to Twisted Nerve? "They're a very cool label, they have a lot of music. But we realised that these were two people who in the future would have a lot to do because their own careers were going to take off, and then they wouldn't really be the people who run the label. Then it didn't appeal so much anymore." Votel also features on the album, remixing "Winning a Battle, Losing the War" with rhythmic piano and wistful clarinet tracks which complement and elate the original like the perfect birthday present.

The Kings play two acoustic gigs whilst we're out in Ibiza, one at the hippy market, Las Dalias, another at Kumharas, a sunset bar on the edge of San Antonio Bay. The first gig doesn't go down too well - it seems that the style of the Kings is a little too unscrambled and down to earth for Ibiza's old hippies, though one gentleman is seen with his eyes rolled back in his head chanting the words to "I Don;t Know What I Can Save You From" an hour after the performance. By comparison, the second gig goes very well, and the crowd at Kumharas even appreciates the Norwegian cover Erlend lifts from one of his favourite bands, Delillo. Afterwards Eirik drives us tentatively through the torrential rain to Cream at Amnesia (sub-Arctic introspection isn't the only thing the Kings have brought with them from drizzly Bergen, it rains nearly all the time we are on the island). But, although Erlend gets into the spirit of things, eagerly leaping onto the podium and enjoying some Shakin' Stevens-style knee dancing, Eirik is not so keen, and leaves as early as he can citing a sore throat. He explains later "I used to be really into techno music and hardcore when I was 15. From 1990 to 1992 there was some excellent raves held in these huge barns near Bergen." I ask him why he stopped going. "It all got too commercial. I guess Cream reminded me of that". Well...who'd have thought it? "Kings of Convenience versus..." is out on October 22 on Source.

Becky Hogge

Published in Seven Magazine, September 2001