Nordic music
theartsdesk in Aarhus: SPOT Festival 2015Sunday, 10 May 2015
There’s no doubt SPOT is Europe’s tidiest music festival. In hosting SPOT, Denmark’s second-city Aarhus turns the expectation of what a festival can be around. There’s no mud, no one takes a stage late and the sound is always immaculate. Underworked... Read more... |
Just in From Scandinavia: Nordic Music Round-Up 13Thursday, 02 April 2015
Very often, the greatest impact comes without shouting. Subtlety can have a power lingering longer than the two-minute thrill of a yell. So it is with Bridges, the eighth album by Eivør. In the past, the Faroese singer-songwriter has collaborated... Read more... |
Sibelius Cycle 3, Berliner Philharmoniker, Rattle, BarbicanFriday, 13 February 2015
The Seventh Symphony was by some way the most scrappy and inaccurate of the performances in the Sibelius cycle given at the Barbican by, it must be said again, the world’s best orchestra. The oboes crunched a chord that fairly made you wince. A few... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Aalborg: Northern Winter Beat 2015Sunday, 08 February 2015
It’s the kind of care-worn venue that’s obviously seen some history. The walls are plastered with handbills for uncompromising bands like Billy Childish’s The Headcoats and America’s God Bullies. Some nosing reveals that it opened in 1983 and Green... Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: MotorpsychoSunday, 01 February 2015
Motorpsycho: Demon BoxAfter a burst of guitar feedback, heavy, snail’s-pace drums pound. A massive, churning riff kicks in. The agitated singer tells of bad dreams and blisters on his skin. It’s heavy, lumbering and could define the most... Read more... |
Jan Garbarek Group, Stormen, BodøMonday, 26 January 2015
Norway’s celebrated jazz colossus Jan Garbarek hadn’t played the north Norwegian city of Bodø for 15 years. Moreover, he and his group took the stage of the spanking new Stormen concert house as the openers of Bodø Jazz Open, the city’s four-day... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Reykjavík: Iceland Airwaves 2014Sunday, 16 November 2014
A slim 69-year-old man in a rumpled sports jacket looking like a gone-to-seed history lecturer with the colour-clash dress sense of Michael Portillo is gripping a microphone so hard it’s a wonder it hasn’t been crushed. He is barking lyrics in... Read more... |
Just in From Scandinavia: Nordic Music Round-Up 12Friday, 07 November 2014
The voice is unmistakably Icelandic. Fluting and dancing around the notes, the words it carries are broken into segments which don’t respect syllables. Although singing in English, Hildur Kristín Stefánsdóttir hasn’t sacrificed her Icelandic... Read more... |
CD: KiasmosWednesday, 15 October 2014
As vaporous as the haze on its cover, the sound of Kiasmos resonates like clouds sweeping across low mountain peaks, intermittently breaking into a storm or opening to reveal wan sunlight. Although firmly within the boundaries of electronica, the... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Helsinki: Niubi FestivalSunday, 14 September 2014
Tulegur Gangzi describes his music as “Mongolian grunge” and “nomad rock.” Thrashing at an acoustic guitar, the Inner-Mongolian troubadour is singing in the khomei style, the throat-singing which sounds part-gargle, drone and chant – or all... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Helsinki: Flow Festival 2014Sunday, 17 August 2014
An expectant audience isn’t the only thing which can be seen from the main stage of Helsinki’s Flow Festival. Janelle Monáe, Manic Street Preachers and OutKast are also greeted by a gas holder looming ominously before them. This brooding remnant of... Read more... |
theartsdesk in the Faroes: Disco and Dried FishSunday, 27 July 2014
“Tonight, in the Faroe Islands, we’re going to find the greatest dancer.” It’s not an exhortation which often rings out. It could even be a first time The Faroes have been invited to demonstrate their disco prowess. Sister Sledge are on stage and... Read more... |
