Waaktaar & Zoe - World of Trouble (2017)

It is with great pleasure Drabant Music can announce the new project from legendary Norwegian songwriter and guitar player Pål Waaktaar-Savoy, of a-ha and Savoy fame.

Waaktaar & Zoe is the name of the new duo, where Påls exquisite and timeless songwriting will be carried into a new era by a talented and totally fresh new singer called Zoë Aphrodite Gnecco. They get the balance right. Although she is a new face, Zoë is no stranger to music and studios, being the daughter of American musician Jimmy Gnecco, Påls friend and collaborator from the project Weatherwane.

The songs on the debut album World of Trouble, that will drop worldwide in February next year, serves as perfect vehicles for the «out of her time»-ness of Zoës deep and expressive voice, bringing a cinematic quality to the music. Pål will, because of his early global pop hits with a-ha, be forever linked with the glitzy and urbane glass&concrete pop of the eighties, but throughout his career with that band, and his other band Savoy, he has additionally shown a knack for songwriting drawn from the soil where classic pop and rock of the sixties and seventies has grown. He has also kept a keen interest in what’s going on today, and living in Manhattan and Brooklyn for the last couple of decades has made its mark on his songwriting and sound.

Some of the songs on the album has a long back story, as Pål is known for revisiting old themes and finishing songs he has kept in various drawers for decades. But Zoës voice, his distinct signature as a songwriter and musician, the vintage guitars and synths and the rich but DIY-vibe of the production (Pål has indeed done it himself, and plays most of the instruments), gives the music and the album it’s very own identity.

The first single, «Beautiful Burnout», is available on most digital platforms now, and on a limited edition seven inch vinyl single in November. The guitar parts and beautiful songlines has this specific classic quality: it sticks in your head. The lush, beatlesque string arrangements gives the rootsy song wings to fly. And his lyrics, about contently walking the streets of Soho in the beautiful morning sun, watching other people doing the zombie walk to work to do their part for the modern machine, gets new meaning when sung from the perspective of a twenty year old girl weary of the pressures of our society. «I don’t mind if i turn out unlike those I’m around», as the song goes. The breezy, laissez-faire vibe of the tune captures the essence perfectly, as does it’s accompanying music video.

The songs of Waaktaar & Zoe is the sound of two people creating music for the sake of music, effortlessly making pop music of vintage character and quality. It may be a world of trouble, but it is still possible to find meaning and happiness through music.