Last Friday brought us a bunch of great new releases, including new albums from DJ Suzy, Boyhood and Fine. But we hope you haven’t overlooked Ciao, the new EP from miaw, either.
Made up of Frederik Fog Bruun and Liza Dries, who first connected through Cologne’s underground music scene, the Copenhagen based duo have been making some wonderfully unpredictable pop music. Their sound brings together the restless energy of UK bass, the haziness of shoegaze and the melancholy of 90s trip hop. Their debut EP, My Petswan, arrived in 2024, and for a while, the two were living in different countries, making music whenever they could visit each other or simply exchanging files online. That back and forth, both geographically and musically, has become part of what makes their music so distinctive.
One winter day, Liza wrote “ciao” in the snow covering a parked car and sent a picture to a friend. The photo eventually became the artwork for their single “moving in”, and the word stuck around. Since it can mean both hello and goodbye, it also seemed like a fitting choice for two musicians who had spent years moving between cities.
Released on October 23, their Ciao EP packs an impressive amount of ideas into just 16 minutes. Written and produced between Berlin, Groningen and Copenhagen, its five tracks are full of chopped vocals, restless breakbeats, fuzzy guitars and melodies that seem to appear out of nowhere. There’s even room for video game sounds, wonky flutes and broken glass. Already featured in our Best Songs of 2026 playlist, “moving in” turns a pounding club beat into something strangely sentimental, while “traffic lights” and “sad song” feel like hazy dreams you could dance to. Elsewhere, “make a waterfall” plays with fragmented samples, and “wonderland” brings a softer, more nostalgic touch.
And while the whole thing sounds effortlessly playful, getting some of these tracks to work wasn’t always easy. As Frederik explains, “Some of the tracks found their true form really late in the process after we thought it might never work out, becoming something really dear to us”. Perhaps that’s part of the charm of Ciao: even when the beats get messy and the melodies take unexpected turns, there’s always something warm and personal holding everything together.
- miaw turn restless breakbeats and hazy melodies into pop on their Ciao EP - October 28, 2026
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- Yangze shares bittersweet new single “F*** No” ahead of debut album Heartbreak Stew - October 15, 2026
