Simplicity can be deceptive. Broken Twin’s music may be largely made up of piano, strings and Majke Voss Romme’s haunting vocals, but the debut album ‘May’ is a work of depth and beauty. Simplicity is key to its name, too. “I was looking for a title that was simple, and not giving too much away, reflecting the songs,” says the Danish auteur. “Also it represents a time of year that seems to fit the songs. Spring is a time when everything is changing. It’s a hopeful season.”

Though compromising just 10 songs, ‘May’ is compiled from more than three years of intensive songwriting and based on over 200 sketches recorded on laptops and phones. “I’m very compulsive when I’m working on songs,” says Majke. “Mostly I begin by improvising on piano or guitar, singing random words. It sounds like English but it’s not. I’m writing and recording all the time at the moment.”

‘May’ is very much one artist’s labour, an intensely personal album that adheres to a singular vision. “I wanted to get back to basics, seeking a sound that was warm and lo-fi; minimal and spacious and focused on the songs,” says Majke. “I’m a new artist – I need to be sure about what I want to do before I can let anybody else in. It’s a very personal record.” In that spirit, it’s an album that refuses to hand the listener everything on a plate. Asked what the theme of her music is, she says “relations” and “emotional patterns”, and refuses to be drawn further. “I want people to find whatever they want in the songs.” Broken Twin songs are intended to live in the mind of the listener.

Now 25, Majke’s first experiences of music were playing with her father, an amateur musician and occasional piano teacher, in northern Jutland. Together they’d play Beatles songs and pop standards at the family piano, something Majke remembers as being “some of my best musical memories”. Having been exposed to music at a young age, Majke harboured secret dreams of being a musician that were suppressed by crushing adolescent shyness. “As a child I was really outgoing, but something happened when I got to being a teenager,” she says. “It was a big change, I was very introverted. I was writing music and singing but people I went to school with didn’t know anything about it.” She also felt that being a musician was beyond the reach of a girl from small town Denmark. “It’s something I always really wanted to do but I didn’t really think it was an opportunity that was available. I was in the real world, people who did music were somewhere else.”

Yearning to get away from her “grey” and “safe” hometown, Majke has spent her adult life moving restlessly from city to city, always searching something bigger, a place that’s easier to get lost in – and she’s currently contemplating her next move. She went first to Denmark’s second city, Aarhus, where she took jobs ranging from waitress to substitute teacher. “Sometimes I saw myself from above, kids everywhere, swinging from lamps,” she laughs. “It was really awful and I felt terrible because I was so bad at it.”

At first a reluctant performer, Majke was coaxed onto the stage by a piano teacher. Forming a band to avoid the dread of playing alone, she began a working relationship with another like-minded musician, Emilie Marie Kjær, which led to their group, Glass Arena. The pair were offered a place at a residential band camp back in Northern Jutland, which is where Majke met her future manager. “We went because there was free food and we could just hang and make music, but it was kind of a turning point,” she says. Soon after, the pair moved to Copenhagen and began taking music more seriously – Majke more than her counterpart. “We played together for three years and she’s my best friend, but at some point Emilie decided she wanted to study and have time to herself, which is really understandable. It was difficult because I wanted to spend all my time on music. I’m quite obsessive about it.”

Glass Arena turned into Broken Twin and be turned came Majke’s solo project, and though the name seems loaded with meaning given the circumstances, it was in fact chosen for its ambiguity and mystery. Now signed to ANTI, the same label as Kate Bush, Tom Waits and Nick Cave, Majke has released her debut single ‘Sun Has Gone’ in 2013. “I guess that song is a bit lighter than most of the songs on the album” she says. The album exists in a place that Majke describes as “some kind of slow, romantic melancholy.”

“Of course I like different kinds of music, but I’ve always been attracted by simplicity and music that has a melancholic vibe. It just seems to resonate with me,” she says. “You know, hearing other peoples’ sad songs, relating to them, feeling a connection to that, it makes you feel less alone in the world, I think”.

The B-side of ‘Sun Has Gone’ was a cover of Johnny Thunders’ ‘You Can’t Put Your Arms Around A Memory’, which is reflective of Majke’s wide-ranging influence. In teen years and on, her listening turned to singer-songwriters of a particular stripe: Leonard Cohen, Bill Callahan, Nico, Lou Reed, Nina Simone and cult Swedish singer-songwriter Stina Nordenstam.

Like many of those she looks up to, Majke harbours no grand dreams to be the biggest artist, or to perform in stadiums. She just wants her music to connect with as many people as possible. “I’m not that career focused to be honest,” she admits. “I’d like to do this for the rest of my life, and know that I need some kind of success to do that. But if that was my main focus, I wouldn’t do this kind of music. I would put a bass and a drum on there – and dance more!”

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Live Broken Twin are Majke Voss Romme and Under Byen violinist Nils Gröndahl.

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“ Broken Twin is the most arrestingly beautiful songwriter we’ve heard in aeons.” NME

“There’s something about the unaffected clarity of Broken Twin that rings true straight away: the tremor in her proud voice, sure as an arrow in contrast to the lonely pedal steel caws that arc throughout the song, as she sings of a break-up shivering down lonely spines, stark in the moon’s reflection, over a humble, clanky piano line.” PITCHFORK (US)

“Piano, violin and subtle loops form a minimalist soundscape of songs full of longing (…) One is reminded of the great Hope Sandoval.” ROLLING STONE (DE)

“This young lady one needs to keep in mind. Broken Twin is amongst the most exciting discoveries brought to the INTRO team “ INTRO (DE)

“Her music is sparse, expansive and centered around delicate, affecting vocals.(…) It captures the sense of Nordic loneliness through a fragile piano line and softened vocal harmonies.” PASTE Mag (US)

“Its easy to see (or hear) why Jens Lekman recently fell for Broken Twin. An entry into the Scandinavian melancholy file, her music is filled with delicate hooks, and exhibits a sweet/dark dichotomy. ” UNDER THE RADAR (US)

“With a pristine voice and a bunch of slow-burning, violin-laden sorrowful compositions in her arsenal she’s bound to achieve great things.” CLASH Magazine -live review (UK)

“Broken Twin, ethereal & intense with the kind of studied quiet that makes you pay attention” Neil McCormick (Daily Telegraph) after her SPOT Festival show.

“A Danish singer-songwritter who makes gorgeous, piano led music (…)I saw her play last night and although there is a sadness in her music, its also uplifting and she’s a deeply soulful singer” Phil Hebblethwaite (Founder of the Stool Pigeon Newspaper UK)

“The test of an artist who performs fragile music live is whether they can stun an audience into silence, and at Kulturkirken Broken Twin Transfix (…) if the market seems overcrowded by singer/songwriters, you realize tonight that BT stands apart because she’s so inherently soulful.” BYLARM newspaper review (NO)

“A melancholic and accomplished calling card, the sort of debut which instantly makes its presence felt. The four songs ebb and flow with a familial resemblance to our own Laterns On The Lake and Parades-era Efterklang.” THE ARTS DESK (UK)