Norwegian duo Smerz announce new six-track EP ‘Easy’, out May 15 via Escho, and share lead single ‘Spring Summer’. Listen now
Smerz are not slowing down. The Norwegian duo, Catharina Stoltenberg and Henriette Motzfeldt, have announced a new six-track EP titled ‘Easy’, set for release on May 15 via Escho, alongside its lead single ‘Spring Summer‘. The announcement lands while the pair are mid-tour across the UK and Europe, with a North American leg beginning May 14.
‘Spring Summer’ moves the way Smerz does best: controlled, minimal, unhurried. A synth line runs over a steady hi-hat and snare, the groove locking in before the track ends just as you’ve started to settle. It shares a tonal atmosphere with contemporary peers like Tirzah and Erika de Casier, that particular register of downtempo pop that feels close without being sentimental.
A Tangent That Became Its Own Record
The duo have explained that ‘Easy‘ grew directly out of the ‘Big City Life‘ sessions, beginning as an offshoot rather than a deliberate new project. “At the tail end of finishing ‘Big City Life’ last year, we made the song ‘Easy’ and from there went off on a tangent,” they said in a press release. “Many of ‘Big City Life’s songs are rooted in specific stories. This ‘Easy’ EP presented itself in a more open-ended process, almost like a daily journal. It began as a snapshot of a moment, one that was about to become our spring last year, and was finished moving into spring of 2026.” The result is a record that sits adjacent to ‘Big City Life’ rather than inside it. The EP tracklist includes two apparent variations on existing songs: ‘Spring Summer 3 Beat’ and ‘Somewhere 2’ sit alongside their counterparts ‘Spring Summer’ and ‘Somewhere’. Rounding out the six tracks are ‘Its Here’ and ‘The Room You Described’.
Context: A Duo Whose Moment Has Arrived
‘Big City Life’, released in May 2025, was among the year’s most critically considered experimental pop records. Its November follow-up, ‘Big City Life Edits‘, assembled an unusually strong roster for a remix project, drawing contributions from Clairo, ML Buch, Astrid Sonne, Erika de Casier, MIKE, Fousheé, Elias Rønnenfelt, They Are Gutting a Body of Water, and Cezinando, among others. The breadth of that guest list was its own kind of cultural signal. That signal has continued to amplify. Smerz are currently midway through a UK run before heading back to Europe for dates in Dublin and Oslo. Their North American dates begin May 14 at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California. Later this summer, the duo will open select dates on Robyn’s Sexistential Tour across Glasgow, Brussels, and Stockholm, a pairing that makes complete sense given where both artists sit within contemporary pop’s more considered edge. The ‘Easy’ EP arrives May 15 via Escho.
