Sally Shapiro

by K. Ross Hoffman

In a sense, Sally Shapiro is both the recording pseudonym of an anonymous Swedish singer and also the name of the duo, consisting of that singer and producer/writer Johan Agebj?rn, who are together responsible for the music released under the moniker "Sally Shapiro." That music, combining Shapiro's delicate, silvery vocals with Agebj?rn's vintage-styled synthesizer dance tracks, is a deliberate and meticulous replication of the sound of 1980s Italo disco, as well as a distillation of the melancholy yet hopeful sentimentality commonly associated with twee indie pop.

The pair first met in 2001, working in an office together, but it wasn't until Christmas 2004 that Agebj?rn, a lifelong Italo disco lover, noticed Shapiro's voice while they were singing carols at his piano. He told her she would make an excellent Italo-style singer, and as luck would have it she turned out to be a fan of the genre as well. Shapiro agreed to record vocals for a tune Agebj?rn had penned in the style of Valerie Dore and Katy Gray (similarly pseudonymous singers who were backed by obscured writing/production teams), although when they finally got around to it in early 2006, she was so shy that Agebj?rn had to leave the room while she sang her part. The resulting track, "I'll Be by Your Side," was almost instantaneously hailed as a modern classic on online disco forums; it was given a vinyl release on the Austrian label Diskokaine that July and was soon championed in such outlets as Pitchfork Media, Vice magazine, and The Village Voice.

The album Disco Romance followed on Diskokaine in December, containing that song and five more Shapiro/Agebj?rn collaborations (one of them, the single "Anorak Christmas," a cover of the Swedish indie pop one-man band Nixon), two remixes, and an ambient Agebj?rn instrumental. In October 2007, Canadian-based indie Paper Bag Records released Disco Romance in North America with a revised track listing including three new songs (two by Nixon's Roger Gunnarsson; one of them penned specifically for Shapiro) and the extended version of "I'll Be by Your Side." Shapiro's much-discussed shyness (she still refuses to record vocals while anyone is in the room) has precluded her from music videos or making live appearances to promote the album, although she has given numerous interviews. The duo still managed to stay in the minds of critics and fans, however, by releasing two albums of remixes, Remix Romance, Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 -- which included contributions from artists like Dntel, Holy F**k, the Juan Maclean, Junior Boys, and the Russian Futurists -- in April and June of 2008, respectively.