Cloetta Paris

By coincidence or not, Cloetta Paris began attracting attention in online circles around the middle of 2007, roughly a year after similarly styled Swedish synth pop sweetheart Sally Shapiro emerged as the enigmatic face (and voice) of the late-2000s Italo-disco renaissance. It's usually a gross oversimplification to draw such a strong comparison between two artists, and Paris is no mere also-ran, but the resemblances are striking: a wispily thin, nearly expressionless but endearingly tender voice; the indie-pop-meets-electro aesthetic of emotionally fragile lyrics and wistful melodies set against sturdy, elegant, '80s-inspired synthesizer dance grooves, and a cultivated air of mystery and anonymity surrounding the people actually responsible for the music. Next to nothing is known about the blond, behatted Cloetta herself (if that's even her real name, which is doubtful), but her songwriting/producing partner, billed as Clive Reynolds, is in fact veteran Swedish indie popster Roger Gunnarsson of the Happy Birthdays, Free Loan Investments, Intellivision, the Garlands, and, more notably, Nixon, though better known for the Shapiro songs he wrote or co-wrote, including the Nixon cover "Anorak Christmas." For her/their part, Cloetta Paris maintained commendable retro '80s credentials by covering of John Parr ("St. Elmo's Fire"), ELO ("So Serious"), and Shakin' Stevens ("Cry Just a Little"). After over a year of MySpace presence with no physical product, the full-length Secret Eyes was released in April 2008 on Skywriting Records, a Portland, OR-based label founded specifically for that purpose.