Mutual friend alert! That the paths of Helen Fry and this festival have not yet intertwined is an enigma of the highest order and is hereby annulled. The Poland-born, Berlin-based Fry has warbled her way through plattenbau settlements with Touchy Mob as propelling backup, and she seems at home with Jack Chosef on the drums and Fenster in the tourbus. Her song “pcnc310/pcnc” appears among tunes by TSF alumni Magic Island, Antoine93 and Pascale Project on a recent compilation for the Berlin underground-turned-overground label Mansions & Millions. Alas, friends will be friends. Helen Fry’s understated, pastel pop strikes particularly resonant chords along the Montreal-Berlin-Warsaw axis. This is bedroom recording of the digital sort; millennial DIY; eccentric pop rolling deep amidst the Neukölln expat bubble. The first recordings are up on Fry’s Soundcloud page. Anyone who so eloquently covers Gigi D’Agostino may keep showing us the middle finger. Oh, and nice video, Helen. It made us pretty pretty dizzy.

–