The Lovers of Valdaro – Euphoric Melancholic Electronic

The Lovers of Valdaro is a Swedish duo comprising Erik Gabriel, who has been an artist for 15 years and Adam Warhester, who is also a music producer and manager of two bands who have appeared in GIITTV/Nordic Music Scene – Rånda and Delorian.

Historically, The Lovers of Valdaro is a pair of human skeletons approximately 6,000 years old and discovered by archaeologists at a Neolithic tomb in Italy, in 2007. They were interred facing, and with arms around each other, in a way reminiscent of a lovers’ embrace.

It’s a mightily evocative name to choose but their music, typically Swedish electro-pop (of which there is a surfeit) but with much more to it, is appropriately vivid, powerful and well produced with two well-matched voices. Gabriel in particular has a lyrical vocal, not quite androgynous, where you can’t quite tell if the singer is male or female. He has had to tone down his typically theatrical delivery for these songs.

The Lovers of Valdaro released their first single ‘Lost Forever’ in April and won a spot as the opening performers at Melodifestivalen 2019 with a Radio P4 Nästa performance of it, partly because of a very visual stage show, which they promise for the Melodifestivalen competition, which is Sweden’s entrée into the Eurovision Song Contest, the winning song being the country’s representative. The band had their first show at Stockholm Pride/Europride. They follow up with this EP consisting of four tracks and including a version of Nick Kamen´s ‘I Promised Myself’ which isn’t that far removed from the original.

They describe their music as “euphoric, melancholic and electronic”, hence the title. EME is something they’d like to develop, acronym and all, as a new ‘genre’. Heartbreak songs with lyrics that welcome scrutiny.

‘Walk Alone’ might benefit from a lengthier, more diverse, bridge but the tune is Euro-catchy while ‘Lost Forever’ meanwhile is reminiscent of a slightly toned-down Wham! and with an even more distinctive 1980’s sound.

‘Lovers on the Run’ is a slightly slower track with more emphasis on melody and vocals.

A solid disco beat pervades each track and that’s where these songs are going to be played, whether the discos are in Venice, Valencia or Västerås.

Euphoric, Melancholic, Electronic will be self-released on September 7^th.

An album will follow later this year with, it is promised, “some more cheerful songs on it”.

Interesting titbit. Erik Gabriel has already appeared in the Eurovision Song Contest, this year, as a dancer for the Moldovan entry.

(Lost Forever)