On “Birthday”, School of X makes letting go sound like the easiest thing in the world

There is a strand of Scandinavian alternative pop that operates mostly below the radar of the algorithm — critically serious, uncommonly well-connected, and committed enough to making strange and honest music that mainstream crossover almost feels beside the point. School of X, the Copenhagen project of Rasmus Littauer, sits near the centre of that strand. His collaborators include MØ, Trentemoller, Soleima and Lord Siva; his catalogue moves between the experimental and the melodic with an ease that has earned him international festival slots and genuine critical attention.

“Birthday” is something new from that catalogue — not a pivot, but a deepening. The track’s premise is quietly philosophical: a child’s voice addressing the adult version of himself, telling him to relax and stop taking everything so seriously. “I’m trying to let my inner child tell the adult to just relax, take it easy and stop taking everything so seriously,” Littauer says in the announcement. “It’s pretty useful to have a voice like that on your shoulder.” The result is playful in the way that only music made with genuine conviction can be — that rare combination of lightness and emotional weight.

Rasmus Littauer, the artist behind School of X, press portrait — Photo: Sarah Stenfeldt

The origins of the track are as good as the track itself. What began as a demo written alongside Tobias Laust (known for his work with A Good Year and Liss) and Villads Tyrrestrup (whose credits include Smerz, Soleima and Liss) eventually found its final shape in a single afternoon at a petrol station in Greece — the very first day of recording sessions for Littauer’s upcoming album. Most of it came together in first takes, and the ambient texture of the setting — traffic noise, wind blowing through open doors — was deliberately left in the mix. The production, co-developed with Søren Buhl, balances a playful edge against something quieter underneath.

The music video, directed by Albert Hildebrand, returns to that same petrol station, closing the loop between the song’s origins and its final form. “Birthday” arrives ahead of School of X’s performance at the by:Larm festival in Oslo this weekend, and follows a sustained run of activity that has included the recent singles “Dreams” and the double-release “Slow My Heart Down” / “Not Enough Time” (feat. Hans Phillip). The forthcoming album — of which “Birthday” is the first track recorded — has not yet received a release date.

At a time when the prevailing mode in pop is to layer anxiety and production density, School of X is reaching for the opposite: the unguarded take, the sound of a room, the moment before second-guessing kicks in. On the evidence of “Birthday”, that instinct is paying off.

Tags: Albert Hildebrand, alternative pop songs, Rasmus Littauer, School of X, Søren Buhl