Kings of Convenience, Bush Hall

Kings of Convenience make the kind of folk music that is perfect for holding hands, watching fireflies on peachy summer evenings and driving down country roads. They borrow liberally from Simon and Garfunkel and sound a bit like Belle and Sebastian, but not as jaunty or twee.
These gentle Norwegian boys, Glambek Bøe and Erlend Øye, have been playing together since they were little and released their appropriately named first album, Quiet Is The New Loud, in 2001. Over simple arrangements and pretty, fingerpicked guitar, they sang about “summer on the Westhill”, girls, heartbreak, and the horizon.
This formula works pretty well, and they’ve stuck to it over subsequent albums Riot on an Empty Street in 2004 and 2009’s Declaration of Dependence. There are livelier moments, though. The duo toy with Spanish rhythms in places, elsewhere with groovy bass-lines.
Kings of Convenience haven’t released anything since 2009, but that hardly matters. On May 7 and 8 the band will play their debut album in full at the lovely Bush Hall. Move fast if you want a ticket: these guys have a huge London following; so much so that they sold out the cavernous Roundhouse on their last UK outing.