Smerz

Smerz is the Norwegian duo of Henriette Motzfeldt and Catharina Stoltenberg, shaping a lean electronic pop where R&B traces, experimental gestures and close vocal harmonies meet. First noticed online, they moved between Oslo and Copenhagen and joined XL Recordings for the EPs Okey (2016) and Have fun (2018), sketching a language of chopped rhythms, collage textures and half-spoken melodies. With Believer (2021), they pushed a diaristic writing into song-shaped pieces treated like small electronic studies. Their second album, Big city life (2025), folds in classical inflections, slowed club energy and direct pop formats.

On stage, Smerz play the tension between precision and looseness: dry percussion set against warm voices, brittle synths under sung-spoken lines, bass that moves without overwhelming. The set shifts from intimate vignettes to head-down grooves, keeping the focus on interplay, space and the grain of their two voices. Expect a live experience that sits comfortably between the club and the art space, attentive to detail and rhythm. Smerz plays on May 25, 2026 at The Opera House in Toronto.