Nordic Spotlight
The best music and music festivals in Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Greenland, and the Faroe Islands
Most presidents aren’t too knowledgeable on their countries’ music scenes, but most countries aren’t Iceland. To celebrate 20 years (!!!) of Iceland Airwaves, the nation’s foremost new music festival for both domestic and international acts, Iceland’s Prime Minister, Katrín Jakobsdóttir, has personally curated a Spotify playlist chock full of Icelandic artists (and some others). Today’s most […]
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 […]
Swedish legend Karin Dreijer of The Knife fame suddenly dropped a new album called “Plunge” under the name of her solo moniker Fever Ray this morning, much to the delight of her numerous worldwide fans. It was only a few days ago that Dreijer gifted us the music video for the Twin Peaks-y To The […]
The annual music festival Distortion is about to put the spotlight on club music again, with hip-hop, electronic, and techno artists from around the world scheduled to perform at the Copenhagen-based event, which runs May 31-June 4 this year. Attracting more than 100,000 people of all ages last year, Distortion is known as a celebration of Copenhagen […]
Icelandic singer-songwriter Ásgeir has released another track from his forthcoming sophomore album “Afterglow.” Stardust, a yearning love song, joins the single Unbound as music to expect on the album scheduled to drop on May 5th via One Little Indian/Columbia Records. Graduating from the acoustic, raw, folkiness of his 2012 first album “In the Silence,” the fastest-selling debut […]
Behold, the list of Nordic music artists performing official SXSW 2017 music showcases! It’s a beautiful thing, isn’t it? If you can’t make it to SXSW this year, we’ll be there to cover the event on our social channels (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube) so you don’t miss a thing. Meanwhile, let’s get you pumped for […]
Time flies when you’re having fun constantly listening to Nordic music to share here on Nordic Spotlight! Suddenly it’s almost the start of South by Southwest Music again. Come March, we’ll be in Austin, Texas once again to cover the bands that hail from Northern Europe. This SXSW is different, though, for two reasons: 1) […]
Finish industrial band Itä-Saksa (East Germany) is back with their first album in 16 years, and it’s a beautiful and surreal soundscape that I do not wish to escape. Das Monument, the band’s newly released fourth album, was recorded in Finland and Belgium in the studios of experimental artist Timo van Luijk. It’s all the things I […]
Lest you think Norway is all fjords and trolls, let me tell you about a beach-waved singer/songwriter named Bendik Johnsrud nee Surfalot and his single I Believe, the latest release from his debut EP Fire. Part island time tempo and part big band horn revival, the song elicits warm, lazy breezes and multi-partner swing dancing — all at […]
Our regular readers will remember that we spent some time last year absorbing the sights and sound of Pstereo Festival, the Norwegian music event that brings thousands of people to Marinen on the banks of the Nidelva River each August. It remains to be seen if we’ll be heading that way next month but…boy do we […]