Smerz

Smerz draws upon underground dance styles including techno and footwork, as well as field recordings, chamber music, and a disjointed take on pop-infused R&B. The Copenhagen-based pair first shaped this fluid approach across two EPs, then issued their initial full-length album, Believer, in 2021.

Catharina Stoltenberg and Henriette Motzfeldt each engaged with music from an early age and attended the same high school in their birthplace of Oslo, Norway, yet only began working together after relocating to Denmark for enrollment at the University of Copenhagen. Deepening involvement with music—through self-directed learning of Ableton and exposure to artists such as DJ Rashad and Jessy Lanza—prompted them to interrupt their university studies. Within a few years they issued their first recording, the hazy and largely unintelligible “Because” (2016). Eight months later that track resurfaced on the Escho label within Okey (also 2016), an EP containing six additional atmospheric cuts. The larger XL Recordings then signed Stoltenberg and Motzfeldt, reissued the EP digitally, and arranged sessions at XL Studios in New York City. Shortly afterward the duo finished a second concise collection of warped material, Have Fun (2018). Festival appearances encompassed Moogfest and Mutek, while their monthly NTS Radio program presented selections of classical, folk, and ambient music. Several singles surfaced in 2020 before the full-length debut Believer arrived in 2021.