GIRL celebrate the vinyl release of Sea and Dirt with the fragile hymnal of "Earthly Habit"

Sea and Dirt is a charming electro-folk record created by Christian Winther and Ina Sagstuen, aka GIRL. Sounding out of step and out of time from many of the Nordic guitar and pop scenes, it's this uniqueness which makes GIRL such a refreshing act and perhaps what also attracted Susanna to the duo. Susanna, who released her own Triangle album earlier this year, has given Sea and Dirt its first physical release on vinyl complete with new track "Purple", while the first 100 copies come numbered and signed by the band.

Ahead of the release on 18 November, we spoke to Christian from GIRL to find out more about the band and this new release. You can also stream "Earthly Habit" from the album below, along with a live session version of "Stop Making Sense".

How did GIRL meet?

In times of youth despair, even through institution-grey hallways, GIRL found each other and ran out into the sunny meadows some time in 2013. I started writing these songs after I dug up an old acoustic guitar in the attic at home in Ålesund. My voice was not fully developed, so I squatted hold of Ina which was the best singer I knew, and together we began to perform the songs for each other in small confined spaces in the depths of the Norwegian Academy of Music, where we both were studying the more outer rims of musical expressions.

Your sound isn't "typical" for Scandinavian artists....so how did you find it and who or what influenced you?

I feel that the Scandinavian sound is hard to describe, the Oslo scene is very nuanced with great bands in any genre, especially in the more experimental and alternative directions, this is where we come from. Ina and I have previously played together in different bands, and all the different stuff both of us do as musicians has a big influence on GIRL.

What can you tell us about the album? Is there a dominating theme which links the songs?

The album is a typical first album in the sense that the songs are written during some years, trying to find a sound and expression as we go, and we have changed a lot since we started. It takes time to make a band, and it takes time to release your first work. So instead of this red thread thing it’s more a collection of what we have been doing the last years. I guess the tunes are connected anyway, the structures all come from my acoustic guitar playing and transforming small ideas into songs. We have strong ideas what not to make, and when we happen to make something it usually comes from small ideas, small frases or words, which turns abstractly into forms. It’s not love songs, but maybe those will come on our next album. We are already making new material and are exited to move on and explore new territory.

You have a vinyl reissue on Susanna's label,can you tell us more about that?

Luckily for us, Susanna enjoyed our album, and contacted us for making a special vinyl edition. She is a vinyl lover I think, and so are we. We really wanted it on vinyl, so this is wonderful for us. We recorded a new track, ‘Purple’, exclusive for the vinyl, a peek into future GIRL sounds I suppose. First 100 is numbered and signed.

We're streaming "Earthly Habit" so can you tell us about that song?

"Earthly Habit" is my personal favourite on the album. Anja Lauvdal, from the band Broen, and also my girlfriend, added beautiful and quite minimal synthesizers to this track. The song is written as an interview with a made up character, heavily inspired by a contemporary Czech si-fi novel which I was reading at the time. This person is telling us to stop our usual business and see what’s really going on right in front of our noses, those mystical and fantastic details we are missing out on.