Nordic Spotlight
The best music and music festivals in Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands
The last time we wrote about Norwegian artist Ida Stein was in late 2015 when she released her song “Are We Changing,” and we couldn’t be happier to post about her again. “Race for Applause,” her newest single, is her first in a while—last May, she said on Facebook that she’d been “a bit more quiet […]
Last year, on Halloween, we posted Swedish dream pop band ViVii‘s song “Suckerpunch.” It was appropriately ghostly for the occasion. “Love Love Love,” the band’s newest single from its forthcoming self-titled debut album (out March 15), is similarly haunting. That said, it’s not as explicitly dejected as “Suckerpunch” is. Emil Jonsson’s deep voice and Caroline […]
On the artwork for Swedish artist Merely‘s upcoming third album, Hatching the Egg (out Friday on YEAR0001), a red-black background object is rendered so blurrily it’s indiscernible. The music that Kristina Florell makes as Merely has precisely the opposite charm: her redolent dream pop is of a high-definition caliber, one that employs ambient sounds for lucidity rather than for fog. […]
The last time we wrote about Norwegian garage rock trio The Age of Colored Lizards was back in November, when we were directed to the band’s debut album, Daydreamer, which we absolutely loved. Now, the band is back with a new song, its first since that album’s release. “I’ll Be Waiting” is a reminder of the […]
Congrats to Signe for making history! Her newest single, “Your Game,” is the inaugural single for Diamond Club Sweden. If you’ve followed us at all over the years, you’re familiar with our love for Diamond Club, the Norwegian singles label that Brilliance (another one of our favorite Norwegian labels) runs. With Signe, Diamond Club is […]
Oslo-based Chrispy makes music that could fairly be described as, well, crisp. Maybe his choice of artist name is intentional: “I Want To Tell You,” his latest single, certainly paints him as someone capable of careful, lengthy consideration. The song is a well-thought-out detailing of the contrasting emotions that can tear at the seams of […]
Sail by Summer describes itself as “melancholic,” but its recent single “Facing Dullness” doesn’t immediately portray the Norwegian-Danish duo’s sorrow. Under stuttering synth splashes, pitter-patter drum work, and squelching guitar notes often blanketed in reverb and phaser, “Facing Dullness” sounds convivial on first impression, just as the heftily produced art of a long-running, mainstream radio synthpop […]
EYEBOMBS by p u n e e sTampere, Finland’s Punees don’t need concrete imagery to make great songs. “Eyebombs,” their most recent single, depicts beasts, monsters, and ghosts against a wiry barrage of eighth-note guitar chords. The contrast between the song’s unignorable, minor-key but not quite melancholic stomp and the abstractions of its lyrics make […]
When we posted about Icelandic giants Vök last fall, we noted that the band seemed to be moving consciously towards a more readily accessible, pop-oriented sound. As we’ve inched closer to the release of the band’s newest album, In the Dark, via the Canadian label Nettwerk, we’ve seen more evidence to support our suspicions. “Erase You,” the most […]
We’ve been keeping track of Iceland’s cat-loving, psychedelic elf-muse dj. flugvél og geimskip, for close to half a decade now. Last Friday, she released her newest album, Our Atlantis (and a corresponding interactive 3D world), which takes her self-described “outer space electronic music” to even darker new depths. “Elsta lag í heimi,” also listed on Soundcloud as “Oldest Song […]