CocoRosie is Bianca and Sierra Cassidy, sisters who grew up all over the United States, splitting the time between their vagabond artist mother and New Age farmer father. After being separated for three years while pursuing their individual artistic interests, the girls providentially reunited in Paris and started a musical project that would become CocoRosie. Following hot on the heels of their latest album, Grey Oceans, the duo is coming to China for the first time.

Coco and Rosie are the nicknames given to them by their mother and have since been fused to create their stage moniker, CocoRosie. “It sounds like a nice Italian perfume,” muses Bianca “Coco” Cassidy. The Cassidy sisters began making music in 2003 when they spent a week in Sierra’s Parisian apartment bathroom, which at the time doubled as a recording studio. The resulting debut album was a melodious mix of electronic children’s toys, expressive beat-boxing, rock instrumentation and classical-style opera.

According to Bianca, CocoRosie is influenced by “the sea, graveyards, the Eros of angels, opera, Bone Thugs-n-Harmony, homo thugs of any sort, Rumi, the Tao …” These disparate elements strung together give some indication of the basis of CocoRosie’s music. It takes the listener many places, from confusion to enlightenment, like stepping out a doorway, into a new experience.

Upon first listen, their songs sound overtly pop, to an almost kitsch degree – conjuring images of a trip to an amusement park or a candy factory. Their lyrics tell a different story, however, as the listener is exposed to a world of orphans, isolation and violence. Their music doesn’t shy away from the darker sides of childhood. One feels the harsh realities of an adult world often funnelled through childlike expression.

‘Hopscotch’, the third song off the new album, opens with two girls playing patty cake accompanied by an old-timey piano. The girls playfully chant, “I’ve got a hopscotch, teardrop, ready to drop”, continuously until their voices fade and a fast-paced snare track swells in the foreground. A vocal comes in – a Björk-esque operatic vibrato backed by low-frequency synths. A dark shadow suddenly envelopes the childhood game. It is the mix of playful youth and more sinister realities that make CocoRosie such an interesting and original act.

Since their acclaimed debut, the Cassidy sisters have released three additional albums and are one of the busiest touring acts today. CocoRosie played this year’s All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival in England and Spain’s Primavera Sound Festival, two of the many major international music events they have headlined since 2005. When asked about the last seven years, Bianca simply describes it as “a beautiful blur.”

CocoRosie @ MAO Livehouse. 4 August. 9.30pm. RMB 180. 570 Huaihai Xi Lu, near Hongqiao Lu. Tel: 5258 9999. Web: www.maolive-sh.com