Nordic Spotlight
The best music and music festivals in Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands
One look at the band name Softcore Untd. and the artwork for its recent single “Gi Meg Tid” might get listeners thinking, “What in the world is Softcore Untd.?” A better question, upon listening to “Gi Meg Tid” is, “What in the world isn’t Softcore Untd.?” On the Norwegian band’s most recent single, the quartet blends together every […]
Prins Oblonsky isn’t the first musician to convey movement with few tools, but he’s certainly one of the more interesting voices in minimal techno right now. “Østerdalen,” the third of four tracks on Oblonsky’s debut EP, Dreams on Hold (out now via Beatservice), rarely seems to have more than four or five sonic layers, but it’s hard not […]
Norwegian psychedelic pop group FOAMMM must be doing something right. Before the Oslo-based five-piece even began recording its self-titled debut album, which is out April 26 on Norwegian label Sheep Chase Records (home to Dark Times, Outer Limit Lotus, and more), it had already opened a tour for Ought, not to mention individual shows for […]
Norway is set to have a strong presence at the world’s busiest week for music yet again. The sixth annual Sounds From Norway SXSW showcase will take place in Austin next Thursday, March 14, at Elysium. The Norwegian label Brilliance will combine with the booking and management agency Atomic Soul, in association with Music Norway and […]
The title of Chain Wallet‘s newest single implies an apocalypse. “World I Used To Call Mine,” the penultimate track from the Bergen-based band’s sophomore album, No Ritual (out now on Jansen Records), indeed deals with the remarkable ways that humans create order during chaos. The theme fits the music well: across the three minutes of “World […]
In case you missed the memo, we here at Nordic Spotlight are huge fans of Norwegian artist Tarjei Ekelund, who records and performs under the name Intertwine. Following last fall’s fantastic standalone single “Let Go,” Ekelund has returned with a luxuriant, smooth-as-silk track titled “Alone.” As with “Let Go,” “Alone” arrives via a Norwegian label […]
Last October, we wrote about Misty Coast‘s “Eleven Months,” which was one of the very best songs we heard in 2018. The Bergen-based duo just released its new album, Melodaze, which “Eleven Months” opens; “Loophole,” the track that follows it, now has a music video that maintains Misty Coast’s established standard of excellence. In fact, it […]
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 […]
There’s this communal feeling that disseminates through space and permeates your body when you hear the Norwegian outfit Pelicat. Listening to its tunes, a compulsion to sway and bob and flitter becomes omnipresent. Its music is the kind you’d hear bringing strangers together in a dingy basement in suburban America or at a local haunt’s […]
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 […]