Five Duos You Gotta Listen to

             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.