Serena Maneesh will be returning to the Øya Festival, the place where their international adventure started. Not many Norwegian bands have been graced with the amount of attention they received after their album debut in 2005. Several American media outlets praised Emil Nikolaisen’s ensemble sky high, but the way Pitchfork embraced them perhaps stands out the most. The majority of Norwegian media outlets ignored Serena’s performance at Øya that year, but the Pitchfork journalist was immediately hooked. A few weeks later, when he published a rave review of the album, Serena got new fans all over the world. We also remember how other international guests who visited Øya in 2005 were highly impressed with the band’s mighty walls of guitar sounds and tender songs. After having been absent from the limelight for a while, they’re now getting ready to sneak into our collective awareness once again. They recently signed with none other than 4AD, a record company that has done its best to ensure legendary status for acts like Pixies, Blonde Redhead, The Birthday Party, Lush and Cocteau Twins, among others. This spring, a new Serena Maneesh album will be out, so get ready for more beautiful melodies shrouded in noisy guitars – or, like Uncut put it when their previous album came out: “One of the most intriguing walls of sound since My Bloody Valentine circa Isn’t Anything.”

www.serena-maneesh.com/
www.myspace.com/serenamaneesh
wimp.no/artist/3565259