Spíra

Description

With her new album, Spíra (meaning "germ" or "sprout"), produced by Skúli Sverrisson, Ólöf Arnalds - the Icelandic indie folk composer, singer, and musician - has rediscovered the joy of songwriting. In many ways, this album harks back to her beginnings: it is exclusively in Icelandic, the arrangements are significantly sparser than on her last two albums, and it was largely recorded in a single take in the control room of Sundlaugin (Sigur Rós’s studio), just like Við og við, her debut album released in 2007. Anyone who has paid attention to Icelandic music this century knows how Ólöf Arnalds can mesmerize a room with nothing but a small guitar and her distinctive soprano voice. Over five albums recorded in nearly twenty years, her delicately plucked guitar, charango, violin, and koto, among other instruments, have provided a foundation for vivid narratives, midway between the everyday and the mythological, sketching rich emotional territories, often linked to love – sometimes familial, sometimes platonic, sometimes romantic. She is arguably the most significant contemporary folk singer in Iceland since the emergence of Megas in the 70s. Her music evokes Joanna Newsom, early Nico solo albums, and Vashti Bunyan, but her deceptively simple arrangements and tightly intertwined melodies are, ultimately and undoubtedly, entirely her own. Though a classically trained singer and violinist, Ólöf has been actively performing popular music for thirty years. She began in teenage bands, then performed regularly with groups such as Slowblow, Mugison, and Stórsveit Nix Noltes. For many Icelanders, she first gained prominence when she joined the second incarnation of Múm on tour in 2003, catching attention on stage with a horned Stroh violin. Her enchanting voice was first heard on Skúli Sverrison’s 2006 album Sería, where the otherwise instrumental song cycle was interrupted three times by Ólöf’s angelic vocal presence (not to mention her numerous instrumental performances on the same album). But the real turning point was the 2007 release of her first solo album, Við og við (international release in 2009), produced by Kjartan Sveinsson of Sigur Rós in the Sundlaugin studio, a former swimming pool repurposed by the band. This album seemed to come out of nowhere and became a local classic almost overnight, earning accolades such as “Best Alternative Album” at the Iceland Music Awards, being named “Album of the Year” by Iceland’s leading daily newspaper, and recognized as one of the 100 best albums of the decade by eMusic. She followed up with an intense tour in the subsequent years, sharing stages across Europe, Am