1. Jubilee
2. Glory To The World
3. You Can't Steal A Gift
4. How Did We Forget?
5. Inside The Golden Egg
6. To Give Love
7. Inner Island
8. Do Not Despair
9. Somebody's Baby
10. The Sun Is An Old Friend
11. Happiness Won Me Over
12. From The Valley To The Stars
13. You Belong To The Sky Now
14. Into The Sunshine
15. Someday I'll Understand (Love Will Be My Mirror)
16. Your Name Is Neverending
Details From the Valley to the Stars
Following on from 2006’s critically acclaimed self titled debut album, Gothenburg’s El Perro Del Mar (aka Sarah Assbring) will be releasing a new album, From The Valley to the Stars through Memphis Industries on the 19th of May 2008.
El Perro Del Mar’s debut (a compilation of internet EPs initially released through tiny Swedish label Hybris) introduced Sarah’s candy-coated melancholy to an ever-growing number of devout followers, finding fans in the likes of TV On The Radio and Jose Gonzales (both of whom she toured with in the UK and Europe), David Bowie and Grizzly Bear and as well a legion of admirers in the media (“genuinely uplifting pop” Uncut, “emotional inflections that sound achingly genuine” 8.1 Pitchfork, “unique and magical” The Times).
Two years after the grand, Spector-esque flourishes of the debut, From The Valley To The Stars sees Sarah strip away the layers to reveal a stately simplicity and an album with an underlying theme – a personal reflection on the idea of heaven. Sarah explains, “I wanted to make something as unfashionable as an album in the classic sense of the word – in terms of its composition and the idea of a theme. The theme itself was as something as simple yet complex as heaven and it led me into a wide and seemingly endless search for a means, a language in which to express myself. As Valley To The Stars was an intellectual idea – the music turned up after the language and at that moment it was as though the music didn’t belong to me, as if in some way it had existed all along. In the same way that ‘folk music’ works I wanted to make something timeless, that in its character might appear like a collection of hymns or psalms, but in a pop costume”.
In her attempt Sarah has created an album with a flow and grace completely at odds to today’s track-grabbing download culture. Recorded at home by Sarah with assistance from members of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra the result is an album that like say, Robert Wyatt’s Rock Bottom or Virginia Astley’s From Gardens Where We Feel Secure creates its own universe and provides within its own aesthetic, a wonderment for the world.