Music can be a daily
soundtrack for every human being. People love music, they have their own
favorit musicians; soloists, group, or even duo group. Despite consisting only
two persons, duo group could also produce easy-listening and eargasm music by playing
guitar and utilizing sythetizer. Now, I recommend you with five duos which you gotta
listen to.
- Kings Of
Convenience
Consisting
of Erlend Øye and Eirik Glambek Bøe, an indie folk-pop duo from Bergen, Norway,
producing delicate tunes, calming voices, and intricate and subtle guitar
melodies named Kings of Convenience, of which Øye and Bøe both compose and sing
the songs, for instance; Caymand Islands, Misread, and I’d Rather Dance with
You. The duo which was established in 1999 has produced four albums – Quiet Is
the New Loud (2001), Versus (2001), Riot on an Empty Street (2004) and Declaration
of Dependence (2009) which hit the third position on US Heat chart in 2010.
Reported by
independent.co.uk, "the story of our band, the main story you need to know
about, is that when the first record, Quiet is the New Loud, came out, in
2001... there was this really energetic record company [Astralwerks]," Øye
says. "It was full of young people, who really wanted to do this, and I
think Eirik was not at all aware of what putting out a record meant –
promotion, playing, there was no end in sight, just releasing more albums and
playing live, and it just seemed like he lost control of his life, Øye excitedly
said.
- Silampukau
In Indonesia, Eki
Tresnowening and Kharis Junandharu through acoustic guitars and vocals played harmonically
made Silampukau which comes from Surabaya to produce a brilliant debut album entitled
Dosa, Kota dan Kenangan in mid 2015.
The album which had been
worked since 2009, tells of Surabaya in a very noble way, about how people face
challenges, from earning a living in the daytime while creating stories for the
future inside their minds and, later, dancing the night away in the last leg of
the day. Moreover, for the new album, the duo did not use a large distribution
service, but worked independently by self-releasing the album. The duo also
toured Jakarta and Bandung to promote their album later on.
Reported by
thejakartapost.com, “for us, folk music is way bigger than punk rock. If punk
rock teaches you to be a rebel, folk music leads you to scale it up. It has the
‘rebellion’ feel, ballads and, on top of all, it guides you to celebrate life.
That’s what we do with Silampukau,” Kharis said.
- She
and Him
Forming in 2006, She
& Him is an American indie duo consisting of Zooey Deschanel (vocals,
piano, ukulele), whom become famous thorugh 500 Days of Summer, met M. Ward
(guitar, production) on the set of the film The Go-Getter, in which Deschanel
had a starring role. The duo has already produced five studio albums – Volume
One (2008), Volume Two (2010), A Very She and Him Christmas (2011), Volume 3
(2013) and Classics (2014) – one EP and seven singles.
The duo produced must-to-see
video clips with the unusual concept of clips. Deschanel and Ward whom accustomed
with film production created several video clips with story plot, dancing performance
and great visualization. For instance, Don’t Look Back (directed by Jeremy
Konner) which mixed analogue and digital music equipments into a story. In short,
you must have loved this duo when you find out their music video in Youtube.
You may put smiles, clap your hands with the ideas visualized, and sometimes
move your body while watching their videos.
- Banda
Neira
Being famous through
Soundcloud – a global online audio distribution platform – a journalist Ananda
Badudu and social worker Rara Sekar made Banda Neira into a more melodic tone
of duo in Indonesia. Quoted by thejakartapost.com, “we found ourselves at a
spontaneous gig where we were going to play Bon Iver’s songs. But we didn’t
know what to call our band. After throwing about some alternatives Banda Neira
was our favorite,” said Rara whom also a sibling of Isyana Saraswati.
They bring acoustic-format
performance by guitar and glockenspiel into songs with several big topics including
romance and politics theme in their debut album, Berjalan Lebih Jauh (2013). The
album consisted of four songs including a song about the 1998 riot which were
recorded in Jakarta while they were both there but the rest were produced while
they were in different cities. Responding to thejakartapost.com, Ananda said
that every day, he eats politics and heavy news. Thus, the more, the merrier;
the more you read, the more inspiration you’ll get.
- Endah
N Rhesa
Different with She and
Him and Banda Neira, Endah N Rhesa continues their partnership into love scene,
of which they became husband and wife in 2009. Endah N Rhesa produced romantic and
harmonious songs with tasty and skillful music talents, in which they have
released four albums: Nowhere to Go (2009), Look What We’ve Found (2010),
Escape (2013) and Seluas Harapan (2015). The latest album has finally consisted
of Bahasa Indonesia lyric. Previously, Rhesa argued that it is not about the
language which make them write English songs in prior albums; for them, music
transcends all languages. Even if you do not understand the language, you
understand the music and the meaning, Rhesa added.
Reported by
thejakartapost.com, "initially we wanted to recruit more people to form a more
conventional band. But we found no one suitable and decided to work with what
we had. We had to accept the fact and do our best," Rhesa explained. "There
are only two of us. We try to maximize each one. Endah uses acoustic guitar to
keep the beat. I use an electric bass so that I am not limited in using my
technique. Endah's voice is another instrument. With these three instruments,
we went ahead," Rhesa said.
Meanwhile, in every their
live performances, Endah N Rhesa always plays a song with intention to promote
their album in the stage accidentally with current condition and the theme of event.
They do that because they have to. They have to promote their album by their
own because they set the duo in indie segment. That action made the audience
throw claps and screams.
In short, there
are other duos which I couldn’t mention to you in detail, but those duos are my
top list duos you’d better listen to. Last but not least, you may update your
mixtape with songs of those duos to fulfill your daily soundtrack.
