Nordic Spotlight
The best music and music festivals in Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands
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 […]
CHINAH, a Danish electropop trio about whom we’ve been raving for a while now, is setting the bar pretty high with its newest song’s title, “Strange Is Better.” It’s almost as though CHINAH—whose members are frontwoman Fine Glindvad, guitarist Simon Kjær, and producer Simon Andersson—is fully aware of how bizarre and amazing its most recent […]
Mysterious Swedish newcomer Bah Non describes his newest song “homonym modulation” as “a ride through the emotional roller coaster of a recent difficult break up.” Although the electronic artist’s apparent debut single moves across six minutes of ambient sear and waveform digital bloops without so much as dropping a single drum beat or finding anything […]
The man behind Lusitanian Ghosts, Neil Layton, may have his roots in Portugal and Canada, but his music is deeply embedded in the Nordic nations. He surrounded himself with Swedish artists and instrumentation for his last album The Betrayal of the Self (released under his own name) and brought some of that to bear on the […]
What’s better than just one great song from a Swedish artist? When that song is remixed by a different Swedish artist! The artists in question are the delightful pop trio NONONO and the up-and-coming electronic producer Hillbom. In the latter’s hand, the original song becomes a new entity. He pitches down singer Stina Wäppling’s vocals, […]
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 […]
Singer-songwriter Louise Lemón calls her music “death gospel.” How that translates to the real world is the spirit of soul music finding truck with dark, dark pop sounds that verge on the doom metal. Is it any wonder then that this Swedish siren was recently announced as one of the acts booked to play next […]
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 […]
Finnish electronic pop duo Hymner like to say that they make music in a “Scandinavian style.” Or as they put it recently, “melancholic indie with a beat that makes you wanna dance and leave your troubles behind.” Mission accomplished, gents, as your new song has us feeling carefree and ready to get on our bikes […]