aaamusic | On 03, Feb 2011

Norman Palm’s beautiful single ‘Sleeper’ is out on February 14th on City Slang (Arcade Fire, Caribou, Broken Social Scene) and will follow a one-off London show at Madame JoJo’s in Soho on February 8th.

An acoustic version can be heard here

Taking in everything from ukulele, electronic beats, crazy choirs, African vs. technoid vibes, warm vs. synthetic; touching on Wilco-esque Americana, Krautrock and at times nodding towards the Beta Band, Norman Palm’s music captures many diverse sounds and moods, complete with his own distinctive vocal.

An art school graduate in Visual Communication, Norman Palm’s work combines sound and image, music, art and design, reflecting on the stereotypes of pop. With his very first single and video he paid tribute to 80s classics ‘Boys Don’t Cry’ and ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun’. The videos worked as a gender discourse, contrasting masculinity in contemporary advertisement and historical propaganda, mashed up with YouTube teenagers performing Cindy Lauper in their parents’ suburban bedrooms. With such a striking love for pop it only made sense that Norman try it out himself.

Now, with ‘Sleeper’, Norman Palm is venturing into the mainstream world. Slipping comfortably into the recently-revived folk scene, thevibrant, summery feel of ‘Sleeper’ is an endearing antidote to the current winter gloom and is released ahead of his album ‘Shore to Shore’, his first music-only release on March 14th.

In an article in German Spex Magazine entitled “Between Big Cities” Palm is described as a German pop export who’s not perceived as German at all. He is, in a way, City Slang’s Lady Gaga: an international pop artist between art, music and design.

The Madame JoJo’s show will feature an additional two instrumentalists to recreate Norman’s atmospheric sound and, given its one-off status, offer an opportunity for the lucky few to hear his album material not only before its release, but in an ideal, theatrical setting for this eccentric artist.

“Bon goût pop (pop of good taste)”said the Parisian Liberation and we could not put it any better!