Cafuné

Brooklyn-based duo Cafuné crafts percussive dream pop laced with electronic textures and shoegaze edges. Following modest streaming gains for their 2015 EP Love Songs for Other People, the pair devoted subsequent years to issuing singles while refining their approach. Their buoyant 2021 track “Tek It,” drawn from the full-length debut Running, achieved viral traction and prompted a deal with Elektra, which issued the 2023 EP Love Songs for the End.

Sedona Schat and Noah Yoo first connected as freshmen at New York University while both pursued studies in the recorded-music program. Their rapport quickly led them to collaborate on songs under the name Cafuné, taken from a Brazilian-Portuguese term roughly denoting the gesture of stroking a loved one’s hair. Working in the university studio, they released their first single “Letting Go” in 2014. The 2015 EP Love Songs for Other People arrived next, highlighted by the glittered electro-pop number “Warm Body,” which accumulated substantial streams. Comparable attention greeted later releases such as 2016’s “Don’t You Forget” and 2019’s “Tek It.” The latter cut, propelled by its lively groove and idiosyncratic melodies, emerged as their biggest success to date and appeared on the debut album alongside the follow-up single “High.”

Issued in 2021 via their Aurelians Club label, Running shifted toward guitar-driven indie rock compared with prior material. A subsequent EP collecting alternate takes of “Tek It” appeared the next year; the track’s ensuing viral surge secured a contract with Elektra Records and an opening slot on tour with Chvrches. In late 2023 Cafuné issued the EP Love Songs for the End.