Erlend Øye’s creativity is endless; as if being part of Kings of Convenience and the Whitest Boy Alive wasn’t enough, he will now release an entire album with tracks sang in Italian under the name of Erlend Øye and La Comitiva. La Prima Estate – which in English means “the first summer” — still doesn’t have a release date, but you can listen to the title track and first single on Spotify. Bubble Records, the label he co-founded with Marcin Øz in 2006, shared some details of this new record on their Facebook page:
“In 2012 Erlend Øye moved from Norway to Italy. It didn’t take him long to discover the goldmine of Italian music of the 60s and 70s and start taking inspiration from its arrangements and style of melodies. Neither did it take him long to take inspiration from the lives of the people around him in the Sicilian town of Siracusa, his new home, and learn enough of the language to write this song, La Prima Estate, his first song in Italian, which centers around his friend Lucia and her day of graduation. Recorded in Berlin, backed by the musicians of The Whitest Boy Alive on bass, drums and synthesizer, Erlend plays the electric guitar and mandolin, while new face Victor Abrahamsson is responsible for the tracks signature flute melodies.”