"Don't Be A Stranger" to Europe's Newest Indie-pop Force, LUWTEN

Dutch indie-pop act LUWTEN, the moniker of artist and singer-songwriter Tessa Douwstra, has been steadily building a profile in Europe with her experimental and soothing pop releases. 

Following up her double single release “Control” and “Airport”, LUWTEN reveals a brand new single titled “Don’t Be A Stranger”. With a slow, bluesy feel and airy vocals that hold a sense of fleeting emotions, the song draws on the listener’s deepest memories. 

“This song was born from an experiment with my grandmother’s old tape recorder,” said Tessa. “There was some awful yodel music on the cassette but when I rewound it and pressed play there was a two second recording of amale choir. I sampled that small part and that became the ‘ahay’ you hear in the theme and chorus. The drums were built from other sounds the cassette recorder made. It turned out to be a strongly R&B influenced song about being on the move but not wanting the connections you make in these fleeting situations to be a fleeting thing.”

By splicing artificial sounds with organic instrumentation, samples and field recordings, LUWTEN’s brand of abstract pop explores one of life’s bigger emotional beats: how to reconcile a yearning for both solitude and companionship. It’s a quandary the world of today is suddenly coping with on a massive scale. Though the balance between spending time alone and with others is ever-changing, Douwstra finds solace in small, bemused observations she can clutch onto like cherished mementos. 

LUWTEN has fast built a profile throughout Europe, with spins on various radio stations throughout the Netherlands, and now BBC Radio 1 in the UK. The indie-pop star has also seen support across streaming, including spots on New Music Friday in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Deutschland, as well as cracking the Netherlands Viral 50.