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Peter and Kerry may sound like a husband and wife folk duo from Somerset, but they’re not. The two solo musicians became friends by accident after trying to avoid each other at their shared record label offices for a long time, a chance West End meeting sparked a strong friendship and even stronger musical pairing.

As a follow up to 2011’s critically acclaimed ‘Clothes, Friends, Photos’ EP, ‘La Trimouille’ is the duo’s full debut recording, and it’s great. Reminiscent of Belle and Sebastian, the album is a fantastic selection of synth driven folk-pop duets that amble along in an endearingly awkward fashion.

Peter and Kerry are one of very few bands that are able to carry off the boy/girl harmony sound with ease and credibility, and the narrative based lyrics are earnest and insightful enough to fall on just the right side of story-telling. At no point do you picture a bearded man serenading the curvaceous woman smeared across the piano he’s playing, and that’s always a good thing.

Aside from the outstanding vocals, the driving force of the album is its joyful combination of synth and percussion. ‘La Trimouille’ is by no means middle of the road, but at no point does it it become unbearably progressive either and the playful drums and almost impish keyboards combine to create a unique folk-tech sound.

Peter and Kerry’s self-confessed 80’s power-ballad influences can be heard throughout the album, but perhaps most notably on ‘Wheels Start Turning’, an out-and-out pop anthem that picks up from where Mystery Jets have seemingly left off.

At one point, the near-complete recordings of the album were irretrievably lost, forcing the pair to go back to square one and re-record it. Well, thank god they did, because ‘La Trimouille’ is an outstanding collection of joyful electro folk that has to be one of the best debuts of 2012.