CD: Vök - In the Dark
Too-muted second album from downbeat Icelanders
Although In the Dark comprises 11 tracks of outward-facing contemporary North European electronica-infused, dance-edged pop along the lines of “Faded”, the 2015 international hit helmed by Norwegian DJ/producer Alan Walker, an undercurrent implies a fondness for the Eighties.
CD: Susanna & The Brotherhood of Our Lady - Garden of Earthly Delights
Hieronymus Bosch inspires a creepy commentary on present times
Lyrics such as “are we hunting for life among misery, Satan have pity on my long distress” and “we’re on a ship of fools, sails laughing and singing to hell” telegraph that, as a commentary on the present, Garden of Earthly Delights isn’t painting a rosy picture.
theartsdesk Q&A: Hedvig Mollestad, Norway's bridge between heavy metal and jazz
The genre-busting guitarist talks about new album 'Smells Funny', a rotting eyeball and more
Norway’s Hedvig Mollestad Trio reset the dial to what jazz fusion sought to do when it emerged, and do so in such a way that it’s initially unclear whether they are a jazz-influenced heavy metal outfit or jazzers plunging feet-first into metal.
Hannigan, LSO, Rattle, Barbican review - the sublime and the beautiful
Music of grandeur and delicacy from the Nordic lands
With the London Symphony Orchestra often playing like some commanding and relentless force of nature, Sir Simon Rattle steered two mighty avalanches of Nordic sound into a concert of granitic authority last night. However, I suspect that many people will have left a packed Barbican thinking most of the uncanny winter wonderland that separated these two mountainous symphonies.
CD: Majken - Young Believer
Unfulfilled promise on Swedish singer-songwriter’s debut album
Although both are Swedish, this particular Majken has nothing to do with the pop-reggae-ska band Majken Tajken which has issued a couple of albums.
CD: Kim Myhr - Pressing Clouds Passing Crowds
The Norwegian guitarist collaborates with poet Caroline Bergvall in an enthralling reflection on transformation
If a new soundtrack for L'Année dernière à Marienbad was needed, Pressing Clouds Passing Crowds is it.
CD: Jaakko Eino Kalevi - Out of Touch
Prolific Finnish sonic auteur favours style over impact
Out of Touch hinges on the yearning “Conceptual Mediterranean (Part 1)”, the seventh of its ten tracks. At this point, over two-thirds of the way into the album the yacht rock via early Eighties, late-night blue-eyed soul amalgam has bedded in to such a degree it’s become possible to home in on the song rather than its conceptual foundations. Way back, decades ago, the track could have passed for a Hall & Oates demo but here in the early 21st century it’s a triumph of putting theory into practice.
CD: Jessica Sligter - Polycrisis: yes!
Disquieting commentary on Europe’s downward spiral
The voice of Jean-Claude Juncker does not habitually turn up on albums. Jessica Sligter's Polycrisis: yes! though features extracts from a 2010 speech by he, the President of the European Commission on “The Dream has Died” and “The State of the Union”.
CD: Teksti-TV 666 - Aidattu Tulevaisuus
Intense, inventive and impactful Finnish reimagining of familiar touchstones
Finland’s Teksti-TV 666 set their musical stall with 2016’s 1,2,3 album, which collected the tracks from their three EPs to date. Now, with their first album proper Aidattu Tulevaisuus, the nature of what they are comes into even sharper focus. In essence, they merge the attack of My Bloody Valentine and “Death Valley 69” Sonic Youth with a punk rock urgency and Krautrock motorik drive.