Smerz by Smerz
(Thursday, May 29th) - Norwegian duo Smerz return to announce the release of Tidligere den dagen, a 32-minute choir piece that unites eight human voices across a digital composition, a meeting between choral music, trap and footwork. While an initial version of Tidligere den dagen debuted during Ultima Festival at the MUNCH Museum in Oslo in September 2023, on June 6th Smerz and GAEA will release a 24-track studio recorded version of the performance along with sheet music and backtrack files on the Smerz label Shopping Records, allowing for choirs to perform the piece at their own will. Today the duo and GAEA share the project’s first single “Det som kom” via a music video here.
We last heard from Catharina Stoltenberg and Henriette Motzfeldt of Smerz in February, the duo having ventured into the intoxicating world of pop and fashion for their EP ALLINA, a collaboration with label ALL-IN studio, which depicts the musical narrative of a fictitious pop star caught between vigor and collapse, paparazzi flicker and 24/7 spotlights. On Tidligere den dagen we see Motzfeldt and Stoltenberg once again experimenting with the intersection of classical and electronic music methods. On their critically-acclaimed debut album Believer, the duo actively worked to integrate classical music’s freer sense of timing into their computer-based process. For Tidligere den dagen Motzfeldt and Stoltenberg wrote the entire choir piece on the computer before translating it into sheet music. The duo composed the piece using digital instruments including mandolin, handbells, flute, referee whistle, a pendulum clock, strings, human voices, triangle, snare, clap and kick drum, accompanying the music are lyrics of soliloquies spoken by the 8 characters, performed by the eight voices of Norwegian vocal ensemble GAEA. The monologues span the characters' everyday lives, shifting between dreams, thoughts, and imagined conversations and speeches. As the eight voices speak, Smerz explores concepts of individuality and togetherness.
After ALLINA, their latest stand-alone single “Shining Star”, their production contribution to NewJeans’ 2023 Get Up EP, and now Tidligere den dagen, Smerz are back in the studio working on new music, examining all the ways in which they can continue to present their boundless sonic world.
Check out Smerz and GAEA’s NTS choir music special here. | 
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