Every once in a while, a new band emerges that instantly feels destined for greatness. That’s the feeling I got the moment I heard “The River,” the debut single from The Sound Veil Society.
“The River” is a warm, richly layered track filled with cascading synths and soaring vocals. It’s a lush piece of atmospheric electropop that immediately brings Kite to mind, particularly in the vocal’s emotional register and the dense sonic landscape. But The Sound Veil Society carves their own path—there’s a smoothness to the vocals, without the quirky tics or sharp edges Kite often employs. Add generous amounts of reverb and a sense of sweeping grandeur, and you have a debut that’s both intimate and epic.
This new project arrives from Progress Productions, the same influential Swedish label that introduced the world to Kite. In the press release announcing The Sound Veil Society, Progress noted the comparisons to Kite. I reached out to the band to ask whether Kite was an intentional influence—or just a coincidence.
“A bit of both in a way, as we both make electronic pop music with an indie approach to songwriting, and Kite is of course a fantastic band which we both like.
That said, our goal is to sound like ourselves and make our own unique sound, and we feel we have found our foundation to build on for the future.”
So who is The Sound Veil Society? The project is a Swedish/Norwegian duo made up of longtime friends and collaborators Erlend Eilertsen and Hasse Mattsson. They may be new under this name, but they’re no strangers to the scene—they’re both members of established acts like Xenturion Prime and Lights A.M., and they were formerly in the Norwegian alternative electro-rock band Essence of Mind. They tell me that the new sound evolved naturally after they started making tracks together that didn’t fit the style or concept of either Xenturion Prime or Lights A.M.
Eilertsen and Mattsson formed The Sound Veil Society in 2024 and made their live debut last month in Gothenburg, supporting Piston Damp. They are currently working on their debut album, which they hope to finish this year. In the meantime, they plan to release further singles and hopefully play more live shows.
