Emil Friis – “Lonesome Town” (audio) (Premiere)

Even in a world where new genre names seem to arise ex nihilo each day, one wouldn’t think that the phrase “Danish cowboy noir” would ever actually be an existing sound. Lo and behold, then, the murky little ditty that is “Lonesome Town”, a track off of Danish composer/songwriter Emil Friis’ new LP Sand in Your Eyes. As a regular composer of film music, Friis knows how to conjure a vivid environment, even one quite distinct from his native Denmark. “Lonesome Town”, as its name implies, evokes the scent of barroom whiskey and the pitter-patter of tumbleweed across an arid desert.

Friis says to PopMatters, “I’ve always been fascinated by western movies ever since I was a kid growing up in Denmark. I’d like to think this song is a musical take on the western genre, the movie genre that is. The tale of some urban cowboy and his early experiences with parenthood. A sort of modern day John Wayne or maybe even Coen brothers sonic film inside your mind.”

Sand in Your Eyes is out on 7 April via Southern Imperial Recordings.