About a month ago, I first heard the music of Smile Down Upon Us, an English/Japanese trio comprising Keiron Phelan, David Sheppard and moomLooo. The music struck me instantly with its beauty and “differentness”. It sounded like nothing I’ve heard before, yet it wasn’t strange or unfamiliar. I’m in some ways reminded of the sound of some modern, experimenting pop artists like Björk, Múm, Deerhoof or Tenniscoats, – but this is at the same time very different than all of them. Now, their self titled debut album is released through Static Caravan, and it has become a fantastic album of otherworldy qualities.

At first, I didn’t know that two of the three members of the band was the people behind one of my favourite albums, the beautiful “Harps old master” by Phelan Sheppard.
Together with moomLooo, the two make wonderful, interesting and at the same time quite accessible music. Half of the songs are in Japanese, the other half is in English.

The band came about when Keiron Phelan came across moomLooo’s myspace page and her recordings for the Japanese Clay label. He sent her a myspace-message, and she responded saying she admired his work too. Soon, they started sending ideas back and forth on the internet between Tokyo and London. Phelan Sheppard recorded guitars, banjos and ukuleles into ProTools, and moomLooo recorded electronics, field recordings and her wonderful vocals.
Phelan Sheppard and moomLooo worked together on the recordings for 14 months, but they never met eachother during the recording-process.

“It’s been a very mysterious process,” says Phelan. “I email moom all the time, but I know very little about her. I’ve never met her, never spoken to her. I don’t know how old she is or what she does for a living. None of the usual things. And I think we all found this an intriguing situation.”

Here’s a video for the Smile down upon us-song “Girl of a skin coloured blanket no. 2″, made by Hans Appelqvist, one of my favourite musicians and artists. More about the band + an mp3 after the video.

[myspacetv 22320082]

The preparations for the Smile Down Upon Us concerts are equally interesting as their recording process. In Japan, moomLooo has been working with musicians to recreate the recorded songs into something that will work live. This will be the eastern version of Smile Down Upon Us. Phelan Sheppard and moomLooo will meet later this summer for some concerts, which will be the western version of Smile Down Upon Us…

“It would be quite something to have a Smile Down Upon Us (East) and a Smile Down Upon Us (West),” says Phelan. “Dave and I have never met or spoken to these musicians, don’t even know their names. But soon we’ll be able to look on YouTube and see them playing our songs! It’s a weird but pleasant feeling.”

The debut from Smile Down Upon Us (as well as Phelan Sheppard’s beautiful album) is highly recommended!

BTW: If you have read this far, and think this sound interesting, I have an extra copy of the album (bought it just before I received the promo). Send me an email with your address, and the first one who send me an email gets one.