Martin and Cheryl Engel are the husband-and-wife team behind South Africa’s catchy folk/country up-and-comers, Connecting Stars, whose self-titled debut album drops today. Though Connecting Stars officially formed in 2012, the couple has been playing together for well over ten years, and the experience certainly shows.

Bringing cowboy hats and line dancing along with them, Connecting Stars do what married musicians do best: write a lot about love. Martin’s acoustic guitar swings as Cheryl sings softly, blending the sounds of her voice with her own ukelele, harmonica and glockenspiel. Despite the various instrumental textures, at the center of Connecting Stars’ music is the lyrics. Although the record is filled with a range of emotions, it’s not all love and rainbows; Cheryl writes of painful experiences just as much as blissful ones. “Pieces,” the album opener, explores the lives of two people coming together to form a whole with only their broken pieces. It’s honest and simple, like the music itself, and sees Connecting Stars in their element together.

Listen to “Pieces” below, exclusively via Elmore.