Sugarplum Fairies

Vienna natives Silvia Rider and Ben Bohm comprise the Austrian indie pop/rock duo the Sugarplum Fairies. Rider supplies hushed, melancholic English-language vocals while Bohm contributes guitar and background vocals, all layered over jangly, frequently acoustic guitars and minimal folk-rock arrangements. Their aesthetic reflects French cultural touchstones including Françoise Hardy, Anna Karina, and Jean-Luc Godard, together with the Velvet Underground, John Lennon, and Lee Hazlewood. Reviewers regularly invoke Mazzy Star—the 1990s female-singer, male-guitarist duo—as both a stylistic parallel and an acknowledged influence. The pair launched their recording career with the 1999 Starfish Records release Flake. Subsequent albums Introspective Raincoat Student Music (2003) and Country International Records (2006) also appeared on Starfish, the latter cut in Nashville by Ken Coomer, recognized for his work with Wilco.