New Music: Johan Agebjörn x Little Boots – Beautiful Stranger

Lately known for his work as one half of Sally Shapiro, Gothenburg-based Swedish producer Johan Agebjörn is a versatile and prolific musician.

Beautiful Stranger is another blissful cut from his upcoming album, Casablanca Nights 2: The Unveiled Chapter, that sees him working with a variety of well-known vocalists and musicians.

Here, he has teamed up with UK musician Little Boots to find a middle ground between the music of both artists, establishing a bright pop hit that draws from classic Italo and Scandinavian pop. That Little Boots sound is present in the lyrics, heartache and pain set to a disco beat.

Little Boots has a knack for making happy-sad pop, and so does Agebjörn: it makes Beautiful Stranger one of those tracks that could easily have you dancing with tears in your eyes. And why not? Music is a release, and the collaboration is a brilliant soundtrack for that. Agebjörn has spoken about making five Casablanca Nights albums, one each decade, and we’re here for that!

Talking about the track, Agebjörn reveals, “I first teamed up with Victoria [Hesketh, aka Little Boots] for a remix swap back in 2013. I really like her songs, and she sings with a lot of emotion and some kind of charming alertness, as well as clever lyrics! Beautiful Stranger started as a demo by Victoria that I really liked and turned into something quite energetic and luxurious. I’m really happy with the result.”

Adds Little Boots, “It’s such a wonderful full circle moment to work with Johan on Beautiful Stranger. I was a huge fan of Sally Shapiro when I first started releasing music as Little Boots – that heady time of indie sleaze and electro-pop and Hype Machine hits! – and I adore what he’s done with this track. It really captures that bittersweet feeling of longing and dancing that I love about this kind of music. The song was actually inspired by my time playing in the ABBA Voyage band and rehearsing with Benny in Stockholm.”

I’d been listening to Angel Eyes a lot, and I loved not just the chorus melody but the perspective of it, almost voyeuristic, that play between intimacy and distance. As a huge Italo disco fan, I’d experimented with this style of production on the demo, so it was serendipity when Johan reached out. I sent it to him; he loved it, and here we are. I can’t wait to share it, and hopefully we’ll do more together!

Casablanca Nights 2: The Unveiled Chapter can be picked up in vinyl format on Bandcamp, and the run of 500 physical copies is already close to selling out. So, move quickly if you want a copy! The album drops via Blanco y Negro Music on the 30^th of October.

Beautiful Stranger can be heard on Spotify – for album news and streaming options for the song, follow Johan Agebjörn over on BlueSky, Instagram and Facebook.