Comprised of Caspar Hesselgar (synths and production) and Carl Coleman (vocals), the Danish indie psych pop act Palace Winter can trace their origins to the Winter and Spring of 2013 when the duo were tour Denmark together — but each with different projects. At the time Coleman was an opening as a solo singer/songwriter act for Hesselager’s band The Rumour Said Fire. And as the story goes, the duo of Hesselager and Coleman bonded over their mutual enthusiasm and love for a variety of things including Elliott Smith, Here We Go Magic, Seinfeld, Bill Hader and instant coffee among other things, and the duo realized that they had to collaborate on something together.
Last March the duo went into the studio with the intention to seamlessly mesh each other’s sound — Hesselager had specialized with a playful yet cinematic synth pop while Coleman had long specialized in singer/songwriter orientated pop. And the end result was their debut EP Medication which was released earlier this month to critical praise from a variety of media outlets internationally, including NME, The Guardian and Noisey, airplay from BBC 6, Radio X, Denmark’s P6 and others. And adding to a rapidly growing international profile, the duo’s single “Menton” was shot up to number 1 on the Hype Machine charts.
The EP’s latest single “New Ghost” pairs strummed acoustic guitar with atmospheric electronics, propulsive drumming, anthemic hooks and plaintive vocals in a song that bears a sonic and structural resemblance to both early U2, In Ghost Colours-era Cut Copy and New Order — but with moody singer/songwriter confessional introspection.
The recently released official video is shot in a gorgeous and cinematic black and white that makes the video look and feel like it was shot during the days of the French New Wave.