Nordic Spotlight
The best music and music festivals in Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands
Sandra Kolstad is a classically trained pianist (whom we’ve praised before), but you might not immediately know this from her newest song, “Haflife.” Although the track certainly betrays the melodic instincts of a creator with extensive formal schooling, it’s built entirely on modular synths and Kolstad’s beaming, malleable soprano. Her next album, Burning Love, is currently […]
On Norwegian duo Misty Coast’s Bandcamp page, the band’s bio is just this quote from the always-trustworthy My Old Kentucky Blog: “Dreamy, psychedelic vibes are a necessary requirement of a balanced music diet and Norwegian duo Misty Coast, comprised of Megaphonic Thrift members Linn Frøkedal and Richard Myklebust, are the latest discovery keeping us healthy.” […]
SpaceX by Acres Wild As you might guess from its title, Norwegian band Acres Wild‘s newest song has something to do with Elon Musk. Namely, the track serves as the band’s official application to join Musk’s SpaceX outerspace transportation program. It’s generally safe to assume that a song with such an ironic premise isn’t going […]
Norwegian label Brilliance is a bit like the Nordic version of beloved American label Cascine. Each seems to specialize in its own certified cocktail of electronic music whose distinct bliss comes from stirring elements of ambient production and electronic arrangements into pop music structures. The labels also share an artist in common: longtime Nordic Spotlight […]
The always-reliable Norwegian record label Brilliance also houses a singles-only label named Diamond Club; ostensibly, it’s titled as such because it’ll only release singles that are absolute gems. If Norwegian band Company Ink‘s “Crew” is any indication, then Diamond Club is indeed releasing solely utter stunners. It’s not often that Nordic artists so completely nail […]
Modern pop artists love a bit of the postmodern. Case in point is this new single from Norwegian artist Bellman. If you’ve listened to enough classic alternative rock in your life, you’ll recognize the lyric and melody being referred to in the chorus. (Spoiler alert: it’s a riff on The Cure’s “Just Like Heaven.”) It’s […]
What feeling is Dagny talking about? Doesn’t take long to figure out when watching this video. She’s talking about L-U-V, friends. That giddy, punch drunk look on her face says it all. Can you feel it too? We sure can. And we can feel our absolute adoration of this brilliant Norwegian talent. We want nothing […]
Out today through Brilliance Records’ fantastic singles club Diamond Label is this glorious piece of synth pop from Norwegian artist Margrete. The line on this young lady is that she stumbled upon GarageBand on her family’s computer at the tender age of 10 and started messing with making music not long after. Now 20 years […]
With a name like Amanda Tenfjord, is there any doubt of this pop singer’s Nordic heritage? Originally from Tennfjord and now residing in Trondheim, this young artist just released her debut single and, yes, it leaves a great first impression. Her ode to those moments when you first meet someone and the impact that has […]
Whenever Norwegian electro pop goddess Jenny Hval brings new music into the world, our whole world stops. All morning, that’s been the case here at Nordic Spotlight HQ as we’ve had this new track on repeat. “Spells” is the first release from Hval’s forthcoming EP The Long Sleep (out via Sacred Bones on 5/25) and it’s […]