Don’t get fooled by Stella Sommer’s surname, German for summer.

Stella Sommer’s not the woman to write you light summer pop hits. She rather resembles an ice princess. The one to freeze and unfreeze nothing less than your heart. Let’s name her the ice princess of Laurel Canyon.

To us Germans, her folky guitar songs sound very much like Joni Mitchell, maybe a little Lana Del Rey even, adding solemn choirs and strings. On the other hand, there’s clearly German roots in the alt intonation of this Ex-Hamburgian, now Berlinian woman.

You can spot Nico (from The Velvet Underground), Marlene Dietrich and Hildegard Knef in Sommer’s sound DNA. You’ve known us for krautrock and techno, but with Stella Sommer, Germany probably plays first class folk, too, don’t we? (Stefan Hochgesand)

Stream “Silence Wore a Silver Coat” on Bandcamp.