Artist Detailed Info: Cerrato

The band:
Maria Cerrato: Vocal and guitar
Luis Cerrato: Synth and vocal

Cerrato are siblings Maria and Luis Cerrato. They are also a scene from a dream you've had, the one with intense, dark colours that you remembered vaguely when you woke up. Where an otherworldly synth-scape wrapped itself around a voice both fragile and strong, haunting and layered. They are not afraid to build this other-world, standing out as an ethereal counterpoint to most of the Norwegian music scene.

The band history began in the mid-90s, based around Maria's songwriting, then expanding to a quartet with Luis on bass and with strong country/roots elements. This project fizzled out after a while, but Bjørn Torjus Hanssen, later to form Osito Records, stumbled upon Maria's demo, and contacted her. Cerrato was then reignited when Bjørn organised the compilation Sement #1 . This time, Luis played synth, with Stian Sander (from the previous band) on guitar, Odd Erling Høgberg on drums, and Joakim Andersen on bass. The songs were still singer/songwriter inspired, but the country/roots elements were toned down.

In 2001, Cerrato signed with Osito and recorded the ep Ghost , and the album me and you followed in 2003 with a sound that shifted between intense, electronic landscapes, and more immediate band material. The album received rave reviews from both the Norwegian ( Dagbladet , Panorama , Rockeweb and Puls ) and international music press, and international radioplay in the UK , Spain and Austria .

When Maria and Luis started working together again in 2004, they played a few duo shows. They realised that, going back to the early days, the faded photograph ones with little baby shoes and strange haircuts, they had a lot of mutual favourite songs. They also found that when they played as a duo, Maria's voice was much more in focus, and it was easier to extend from what they had done into new, unexplored territory. Cerrato are now working permanently as a duo.

Danish zine Geiger writes that, "the numbers where Maria Cerrato's deep, warm voice melts together with brother Luis' synthscapes, are without exception the best from the album. He creates a wonderfully suggestive mixture of electropop and trip hop that wraps around her vocals like silk."

Close Your Eyes , Maria Cerrato sings. I suggest you do the same: close your eyes and sleep, and when you sleep, dream, and when you dream, Cerrato starts playing.

← Go Back