El Perro del Mar is the solo project of singer/songwriter Sarah Assbring from Gothenburg, Sweden. Her music could be described as melancholic lo-fi pop.

From 2004 to late 2005, her records had only been released by the Swedish label, HYBRIS. But in 2006, Sarah experienced a host of new found success when her self-titled album El Perro del Mar was picked up by UK-based label, Memphis Industries, under which Dungen and The Go! Team also release. Prior to the self-titled album, Sarah had recorded and released Look! It’s El Perro del Mar! and the EP, You Gotta Give to Get, in Spring 2005 and November 2005 respectively.

Shortly after having finished touring with my second album 'From the Valley to the Stars' I started writing new songs. For some reason all the songs were about love and in particular that of the doomed kind. Unconsciously I think I knew what I was trying to tell myself. I'd spent some bad times in New York and some good times in Paris and both these cities have made a great imprint on this album and my current outlook on love. I've decided to call it 'Love Is Not Pop' - the songs on the album are all pop songs and they are all about love. But naturally, it is not all as simple as that. As much as pop can be love and vice versa - I'd like to believe that love goes so much deeper than a pop song. The title is of course also a play with words as well as a play with my persona up until this point. This album is also very much a way for me to look further into ways of writing and expressing myself - it definitely is a conscious step away from what I did on my last album. The mindset is darker and the soundscape mysteriously groovy thus it is not by chance I've chosen to work together with Rasmus Hägg, the other half of the acclaimed Swedish duo Studio, as a co-producer. His input and source of inspiration has been no other than apure revelation to me. Working so closely together with someone has been a new experience for me and I feel excited about having come to the point where I've been wanting to let someone into the very much abstract and intimate process of song writing. I'm glad it was Rasmus I let in.

Victoria Bergsman wanted to travel to record in a mysterious, relatively uncharted area avoiding the usual clinical studio experience which she has always disliked and found to be an uncreative environment. She chose Pakistan. The rhythm, drums and flutes of Pakistani music had long captivated Victoria and this, coupled with a deep admiration for one of her favourite singers Abida Parveen and the legendary Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, helped her choose Pakistan as the place to record her new album. Another attractive factor was her interest in Sufi musicians who play in order to enter a trance like state, using music to transport themselves to another time and place. Victoria is one of very few Western women, if not the only one, to record in this region, and the bureaucracy, cultural differences and prejudices she had to overcome to see this project through almost beggar belief. It’s therefore little short of a miracle that this album turned out the way it did. Victoria, previously best known for her work with The Concretes and Peter Bjorn & John’s worldwide smash hit single ‘Young Folks’, now works under the nom de plume Taken By Trees. This new offering follows in the footsteps of Taken By Tree’s debut album Open Field (2007) and will be released via Rough Trade Records on September 7th. Victoria and her recording engineer and sole accompanying musician, Andreas Söderström, left Stockholm for Pakistan after months of bureaucratic paperwork and visa wrangles. They were in fact advised by the Swedish government not to go, unless they had a very strong reason. They were told they could not guarantee their safety.

Despite this, and once finally in Lahore, a dramatic cultural hurdle had to be surmounted – Victoria was deemed ‘everyone’s property’ when men discovered she wasn’t married. She was dragged away leaving Andreas to fight for her safety; they had to swiftly pretend they were a married couple. Whilst making enquiries about local musicians, they met Faseeh the hotel owner's son, who introduced them to his father, Malik, an enigmatic character who had recently owned a pet lion! Malik’s house was a local gathering place for Sufi musicians and so the recording operation was set up around his home, inside and out. Several barriers still had to be overcome though; the notion of a woman in charge of the recording session was an anathema to them. It was only over time, as they began to respect her as a musician rather than looking down on her as a woman, that Victoria’s vision for the record was translated and eventually recorded. Furthermore, the electricity would go off for an hour every third hour. But nothing could stop these local musicians, who had played with famous artists like Abida Parveen and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.

Constant reminders of the inherent dangers of being a stranger in these regions occurred throughout the recording process. One day, Malik who had many connections and who was hugely respected in the local community, arranged for Victoria to witness (and actually film) Ashura, (where men and boys purge themselves with whips until they bleed, sometimes to death). Despite all the careful arrangements she still had to be briskly swept away when some people realized a woman was present and began to spit at her.

These wildly unusual circumstances surrounding the recording process helped create an inspired and stunningly beautiful album that evokes images of Pakistan in a completely unique way. Söderström’s powerful, often minimal guitar work, Victoria’s sublime, mysterious vocals and enigmatic lyrics, powered by the sounds, beats and rhythms of genuine local Pakistani musicianship has created a magical musical concoction. Add to this the production skills of Dan Lissvik (one half of the ultra creative Swedish duo ‘Studio’) who pieced the whole project together back in Sweden in the Spring of 2009, and you really have a genuine Album Of The Year contender.