El Perro del Mar

El Perro del Mar

El Perro del Mar is the recording name of Sarah Assbring, a Swedish artist born in 1977. Her music sits in classic pop and rock, and her work draws on Brill Building pop as well as the writing and production styles associated with Brian Wilson, Burt Bacharach and Smokey Robinson. Her songs often use a gentle, melancholic tone to explore love and life.

Name and early recordings

Assbring says she chose the name El Perro del Mar after a difficult trip in Spain, when a stray dog approached her while she was sitting alone on a beach. She begins recording her own songs on her own, playing most of the instruments herself and singing on the recordings.

Releases and labels

Her first release is a three-song EP issued by the Swedish label Hybris in late 2006. It receives strong reviews and sells well. She then releases a split single with Jens Lekman, which appears in North America on Secretly Canadian. A second EP, You Gotta Give to Get, becomes a hit in Sweden, helped by an animated video for the title track, and also helps bring her music to listeners in England and the United States.

Hybris later compiles her early single sides and EPs into Look! It's El Perro del Mar!. A reworked version of that first release, also titled El Perro del Mar, is issued in the United Kingdom by Memphis Industries in 2006, with an American release from The Control Group following shortly afterwards.

Albums and collaborations

After these releases, she signs to Licking Fingers, the label run by her fellow Swedes the Concretes. Her second full-length album of new material, From the Valley to the Stars, arrives in early 2008. For the next studio project, she works with Rasmus Hägg of Studio. The album they make together, Love Is Not Pop, comes out in 2009 and takes in disco and modern club sounds while keeping the warmth and drama associated with her earlier work.