#neoclassical

NMR Indie Playlist

'Adam Evald' - 'The White Ocean' (from album 'White Night Blackout')

Andy Wors

Feb 28, 2020
2 min

'Adam Evald' - 'The White Ocean' (from album 'White Night Blackout')

We still have so much new stuff to cover from last Friday, because after the new year 'lull' we seem to be hitting peak release season, and this includes Swedish chamber pop musician Adam Evald, whom we wrote about last year, and who has now released his album 'White Night Blackout', and alongside it a single entitled 'The White Ocean'. The whole album is definitely worth listening to, because there's a lovely elegance about Evald's songwriting and arrangements. Previously I

Introducing... Aleksander Waaktaar - 'All Wrong'

Andy Wors

Feb 27, 2020
2 min

Introducing... Aleksander Waaktaar - 'All Wrong'

I know I keep saying stuff like this, but it's just so lovely to be able to get up early in the UK and start the day by writing about lovely new music - it's simply a real privilege. Norwegian composer and now songwriter Aleksander Waaktaar is our next introduction, and whilst it's unlikely that many of our UK / US readers will have heard about him, he's developed a reputation with his compositions and arrangements through his work with the Oslo Philharmonic, the Norwegian Ra

'Frans Bak & Jan Rørdam' - 'For No Reason At All' (single)

Andy Wors

Jan 21, 2020
2 min

'Frans Bak & Jan Rørdam' - 'For No Reason At All' (single)

We didn't cover anywhere near enough classically influenced / neo-classical type releases last year, partly through choice as although we got sent some nice individual tracks, I often felt they were not quite substantial enough. This is probably because I spend way too much time listening to Mahler and Bruckner, which means everything seems 'tiny' in comparison, but this year we really want to make an extra effort to highlight some of the lovely compositions coming out of the

Adam Evald - new single 'Godspeed Blue Lion'

Andy Wors

Dec 18, 2019
2 min

Adam Evald - new single 'Godspeed Blue Lion'

I’m still hoping we’ll squeeze in some of the ‘missing’ albums we’ve just not had time to mention so far this year before we take a break on about the 21st December. However the list of artists we’ve never had chance to feature at all in the last 5 years is even bigger, and one of those is Swedish Chamber Pop composer Adam Evald. I know not all artists like being labelled as ‘Chamber Pop’, but for me it’s always a rich source of good, well written music - after all, what’s no

'Frederik Magle' - new track 'Lux Aeterna'

Andy Wors

Oct 1, 2019
2 min

'Frederik Magle' - new track 'Lux Aeterna'

I don't know what it's like overseas, but in our confused and despotic little 'Kingdom' things are rather murky right now, and not just because of the dark mornings and wild weather conditions. Whether some contemplative early morning Frederik Magle will help rationalise things more clearly I guess depends on the listener, but for me I'd much rather wake up to his music than force myself to listen to the latest 24 hour news outpourings - especially when the topic for his new

'Eik Octobre' with track 'Take Me Somewhere Else'

Andy Wors

Sep 27, 2019
1 min

'Eik Octobre' with track 'Take Me Somewhere Else'

We are getting a lot of classically influenced submissions and releases being sent to us, and we welcome them all - maybe we should ensure we feature one every week. One track which has particularly stood out this week is by Danish artist Eik Octobre, who has released the lovely 'Take Me Somewhere Else', a piano based composition which I think is really nicely written and performed. Behind 'Eik Octobre' is Emil Skovsgaard Christensen, and similarly to many artists he started

Frederik Magle - 'Den Hemmelige Have' (The Secret Garden')

Andy Wors

Apr 23, 2019
2 min

Frederik Magle - 'Den Hemmelige Have' (The Secret Garden')

I had hoped I could 'sneak' in a write up of 'Frederik Magle's' new composition 'The Secret Garden' on Easter Sunday, but it didn't prove possible, although I still feel it would have been an appropriately reflective track for that day. Magle is a Danish composer we've written about before, last July in fact, when he released his piece for two trumpets and an organ entitled 'The Fairest of Roses', and he's a successful composer who has written for Danish Royal Family, and has

'Annasara' - 'Tell Me Before I Leave' (single)

Andy Wors

Apr 1, 2019
2 min

'Annasara' - 'Tell Me Before I Leave' (single)

I think last Monday morning we tried to wake you up with some riotous post punk, so this morning we'll try the opposite - a soothing, beautiful track courtesy of Swedish musician 'Annasara'. Maybe it's more suitable for the start of Spring, where everything seems more positive, and the clouds are looking slightly less threatening - even if the song doesn't entirely match that outlook. So 'Annasara' is another artist we haven't featured at Nordic Music Review, she's a Malmö-ba

Andy Wors

Jan 25, 2019
3 min

'Hidden Land' - 'Perspectives' (album)

We never expect that those songwriters and bands we write about are truly 100% Nordic in their origin. We've even considered a complete rebrand and going global, but we can barely keep up with Nordic music releases as it is and the musical world is too vast for us to consider every nation. But we feature plenty of cross-continent collaborations, and one in particular which has been brought to our attention is 'Hidden Land', a project founded between Myles O'Mainnian from Cali

'BF/C' with new track 'To Grace - Main Theme'

Andy Wors

Oct 23, 2018
2 min

'BF/C' with new track 'To Grace - Main Theme'

We love being able to feature contrasts in styles, and after the harder edged rock of 'Candide Baby', we'll switch direction to a really unusual composition by 'Californiaman', one half of the Swedish duo 'BF/C'. Again this doesn't quite fit into any specific genre, but what I can tell you is that it was written for a production of Lars Von Trier's 'Dogville', which has been playing at 'Folkteatern' in Gothenburg. 'BF/C' themselves are an indie electro duo whom I've been lis

Introducing... 'Folke Nikanor' and track 'Under Stenarna (Below the stones)'

Andy Wors

Oct 15, 2018
2 min

Introducing... 'Folke Nikanor' and track 'Under Stenarna (Below the stones)'

So we'll move straight on from 'Abist' to another release which has a classical foundation, but this time takes influences from the county of Norbotten, its forests and the local people, with melodic based music which includes folk, classical and jazz references. 'Folke Nikanor' is the musician who hails from this northern part of Sweden, and his new release 'Under Stenarna (Below the stones)' is the first from an up and coming album entitled 'Bottenviken', which I'm already

Introducing...'Abist' with track 'Apathy'

Andy Wors

Oct 15, 2018
2 min

Introducing...'Abist' with track 'Apathy'

Normally we do try to 'mix things up' slightly by not consecutively featuring too many releases of the same genre, but we're going to follow up writing about 'Klangriket's' new EP on Friday, with 2 classically influenced compositions today, simply because I think they all compliment each other really well. The first is from 'the backlog' (it's similar to the archives, only bigger...) and it's written by young Norwegian composer 'Abist', who has been self-releasing tracks over

Andy Wors

Oct 12, 2018
2 min

'Klangriket' - 'Tjärn' EP

Somehow we've managed to cover 2 brand new tracks from today ('Fred Seul and the excellent 'JUNODEF'), but we clearly have a lovely collection of releases from the last couple of months to catch up on, and one of those is 'Klangriket', the Swedish neo-classical composer who we've featured a couple of times - most recently when he collaborated with Sjors Mans in 'The Amsterdam Sessions'. His new EP is entitled 'Tjärn', and it was originally written back in 2016 as 'Klangriket'

'Ianick' with track 'A Hymn for the Faithless' (ft. Inge Bremnes)

Andy Wors

Sep 22, 2018
2 min

'Ianick' with track 'A Hymn for the Faithless' (ft. Inge Bremnes)

I was going to post about 'Ianick' yesterday (well actually it should have been 2 weeks ago...), but with the features on Rosa and Simon Lynge I didn't want it to get lost. Because his track 'A Hymn for the Faithless' just has so much depth and so beautiful detail, it somehow just deserves it's own special place somewhere - in fact I'm not sure I've quite ever heard anything like it. We need to introduce 'Ianick' as we haven't written about him before, a Norwegian electronic

Andy Wors

Sep 4, 2018
1 min

'Maleen' - new track 'Sad Ironic'

I'm still slightly overcome by just how good the 'Belle Jar' release is, but we have a mountain of new releases to tell you about this week, and we'll start with something very different from the norm. 'Maleen' is a Danish singer songwriter who fuses together both rock and classical influences to create a distinct and original sound, as well as using the beauty and force of her natural surroundings as a backdrop to her music. Similarly to many musicians of the current era, wh

Mari Sainio - with new track 'Mountains' (from the album 'Minus 25')

Andy Wors

Aug 23, 2018
1 min

Mari Sainio - with new track 'Mountains' (from the album 'Minus 25')

Before our annual holiday we introduced you all to the music of Finnish composer 'Mari Sainio' through her track 'The Silence', released in advance of her album 'Minus 25'. The album has now been released, and we've taken the time to listen in more detail to another track from the album, entitled 'Mountains' There's no doubt that the 'The Silence' really made an impression, albeit it was undoubtedly a fairly melancholy composition, inspired as it was by Sylvie Plath. But we

'Frederik Magle' - "The Fairest of Roses' for two trumpets and organ' ('Den

Andy Wors

Jul 17, 2018
2 min

'Frederik Magle' - "The Fairest of Roses' for two trumpets and organ' ('Den

To contrast with that simple but charming piano piece, our second classical relesase today is by Danish composer 'Frederik Magle', possibly the most 'established' of classical style composers we've written about given that he has had compositions performed all over the world, with commissions from the Danish Royal Family to performances of his work by none other than the London Philharmonic Orchestra. But he has also collaborated with fellow musicians from different genres, i

Introducing... 'LUCHS' and 'Her Eyes the Stars'

Andy Wors

Jul 17, 2018
1 min

Introducing... 'LUCHS' and 'Her Eyes the Stars'

We have 2 classically influenced compositions / tracks to offer you today and both are from artists that we've not featured before. We're starting off in Sweden with LUCHS, and behind this name is the musician (and actor) Patrik Berg Almkvisth, who has just released a live video performance of his track 'Her Eyes The Stars', which was first released last year. Almkvisth was brought up in a very musical family and one of his earliest memories is falling asleep under the grand

Introducing....Mari Sainio with track 'The Silence'

Andy Wors

Jun 11, 2018
2 min

Introducing....Mari Sainio with track 'The Silence'

Last week I tried to persuade you that we didn't just feature slightly melancholy and often just sad songs, and this week we'll start the week by heading straight back in the direction of dreamy melancholia. Although actually whilst 'Mari Sainio's new track might be inspired by Sylvia Plath, be called 'The Silence' and be written 'in that style', actually it also has a hugely uplifting feel to it too which should hopefully allow it to appeal to all. So 'Mari Sanio' is a Finni

'Sebastian Zawadzki' - 'Reduction in the Intensity of Light' (from the album 'No

Andy Wors

Apr 28, 2018
2 min

'Sebastian Zawadzki' - 'Reduction in the Intensity of Light' (from the album 'No

So we've covered post punk, folk pop and some music that seems to fit in between a variety of genres, we'll head into the weekend now with an absolutely lovely album from a Polish born composer, who is now residing in Copenhagen. Sebastian Zawadzki trained as a jazz pianist, released an improvised jazz album entitled ”Luminescence” in 2014, as well as works composed for a jazz piano trio and string quartet ”Euphony” in 2015. However his compositions have since developed int