#singersongwriter

NMR Indie Playlist

Introducing.... Frida Blomberg with debut single 'Closer'

Andy Wors

Mar 3, 2020
2 min

Introducing.... Frida Blomberg with debut single 'Closer'

Maybe I'm imagining it, but the wealth of Nordic talent emerging as Music Producers is really noticeable at the moment, and young Norwegian producer and songwriter Frida Blomberg really makes an impression with her debut track 'Closer'. Chosen at the start of the year to participate in the GramArt Norwegian mentor program for emerging talent, with renowned composer / musician / producer Kåre Vestrheim ('Highasakite', Propeller Records) as her mentor, she had previously studie

Andy Wors

Feb 20, 2020
2 min

'Signe' - 'Halfway' (EP)

We've always made an extra effort to cover Nordic artists in the UK, and whilst 'Signe' might be Norwegian born, she's been based in beautiful Bath for sometime, which has always had a good reputation for arts and concerts. Her debut EP may have taken a while to finally see the light of day, but she's built an impressive reputation performing live, supporting the likes of Beth Rowley and performing at the Bath Festival and other local venues. Now that 'Halfway' has been rel

'Unsewn Heartland' - 'Fragments' (single)

Andy Wors

Dec 23, 2019
3 min

'Unsewn Heartland' - 'Fragments' (single)

Most people have their own Festive traditions of some kind, whether it be annual trips to Christmas markets, or those simple family things - we have this crazy little one in our home that involves ringing a small festive bell every time we enter the house. In Stockholm a very special, and hopefully now traditional Christmas concert took place yesterday afternoon featuring Argentinian born / Swedish based songwriter Natalie Beabella and dedicated to Hanna Westerlund, who start

Andy Wors

Dec 19, 2019
2 min

'Temilia' - 'Fallen Angel' (single)

This years Christmas seems a little more crazy than ever, at least here in the UK, supercharged commercialism and a lot of very stressed people apparently rushing around, shouting at each other and seemingly not full of the love of Christmas. I wonder how it all came to this, and why we let it be so. All the more reason to find time to escape at least for a few minutes into a private world of music, and 'Temilia' is the perfect artist to help you do that - she doesn't need to

Andy Wors

Dec 4, 2019
1 min

'lodet' - 'Volvo' (single)

We have another Album review ready to land shortly, but there's time for a just a very quick introduction to another artist we haven't featured before. Behind the moniker 'lodet' is the Swedish songwriter and producer 'Joakim Björnberg' and he's been writing music in Japan for the last few years, before deciding to release music in his own right. 'Volvo' is an interesting song that rattles along at a great pace, with a laid back melodic feel, that makes it easy to listen to.

'Helga Arvesten' -'AlrightRightNow' (single)

Andy Wors

Dec 4, 2019
2 min

'Helga Arvesten' -'AlrightRightNow' (single)

It's actually pretty remiss of us not to have written about Swedish songwriter 'Helga Arvesten' before, given she's released a steady stream of songs / EPs over the course of the last few years - in particular it's worth checking out a lovely video she did to her song 'I'm Here' last year. But we'll belatedly introduce her now, given that she's released a lovely song entitled 'AlrightRightNow', and it's a clever song that fuses together sounds and ideas from across the musica

'Nervous City Nervous Self' - new single 'Stories of Our Name'

Andy Wors

Nov 19, 2019
2 min

'Nervous City Nervous Self' - new single 'Stories of Our Name'

Somewhat astonishingly Nordic Music Review is 5 years old over this next week, we have no idea how that happened or even why, and whilst we were going to try and do something astonishingly smart and clever to mark the landmark, we've decided instead to simply write about as many artists and bands as possible, because that's why started in the first place. Inevitably it will be a mix of old favourites and new introductions, and we'll start with an artist we briefly introduced

Andy Wors

Nov 7, 2019
1 min

'rauður' - 'We Will All Feel Better One Day And / Or Die’ (video)

A couple of weeks ago we featured the Icelandic artist 'rauður' and her album 'Semilunar', a clever and intricate electronic based album that really appealed to us. Quite possibly the highlight of the album was the wonderful conclusion, a song entitled 'We Will All Feel Better One Day And / Or Die’, and now she has released a video to accompany the song which seems to fit the song perfectly - sad, joyous and uplifting all at once. This is what 'raudur' says about the video: '

Introducing... 'Elimarit' with single 'Heart So Cold'

Andy Wors

Nov 6, 2019
2 min

Introducing... 'Elimarit' with single 'Heart So Cold'

We'll be heading to Sweden, Iceland and Denmark later (hopefully), but first we'll start in Norway with an artist who has an amazing background in contemporary music working with other artists, and is now releasing music in her own right. 'Elimarit' is Norwegian, and after performing with the London Contemporary Voices caught the attention of some of our favourite artists, including the likes of Tom Chaplin, Lucy Rose and Guy Garvey, subsequently working with them on a variet

Andy Wors

Oct 21, 2019
3 min

rauður - 'Semilunar' (album)

We have a couple of long outstanding album reviews to bring you this week (apologies again to 'The Sideways'), but we wanted to write briefly about the debut album from Icelandic 'rauður', because this whilst we do love our 'Indie Pop' comfort food, her new album 'Semilunar' takes us into a different dimension completely, and the reality if that it'll probably take months to dissect and comprehend completely. So behind 'rauður' is the musician and producer Auður Viðarsdóttir,

Andy Wors

Oct 8, 2019
2 min

'Calle Hamre' - 'Different Tale'

We really need to get to some outstanding album reviews ('Moron Police' and 'The Sideways' in particular), but we really do have a great selection of tracks to feature over the next few days, and I really hope we can get to them all. We'll start with a lovely track from Norwegian songwriter 'Calle Hamre', which has a simple intent in many ways, but just oozes a melodic charm that I promise will brighten your Tuesday morning commute on these darkening mornings. So 'Calle Hamre

Day Felice - 'Medicine' (from album 'Go On')

Andy Wors

Oct 7, 2019
2 min

Day Felice - 'Medicine' (from album 'Go On')

We have so much to cram in over the next few days and promise we'll get through more than last week, and we'll start off with an upbeat track from yet another Swedish artist we haven't featured before. 'Day Felice' is songwriter with a softness of musical touch, chamber indie pop that is both elegant and easy on the ear, whilst at the same time being based upon complex musical and lyrical ideas. His new track 'Medicine' (from his debut album 'Go On') is a great example. So

Exclusive: Svavar Knútur - new track 'Januar' (plus tour details!)

Andy Wors

Sep 27, 2019
2 min

Exclusive: Svavar Knútur - new track 'Januar' (plus tour details!)

We've covered a lot of ground today, but we'll finish off with a rare and privileged treat - an almost exclusive first play of a new track by one of our favourite artists, Svavar Knútur. Hopefully you'll all remember Svavar from our previous features, but he's an Icelandic songwriter who's released streams of lovely material, including his 2015 album 'Brot' and the more recent 'Ahoy! Side A' . He's also just started an epic European tour, which is mostly in Germany (and sadly

Andy Wors

Sep 27, 2019
2 min

'Plàsi' - Mystery (EP)

So we've introduced 2 artists new to Nordic Music Review, so next we'll feature a couple that we've written about previously, although now for a while. Last time we featured 'Plàsi' was back in 2017 when he released his single 'Follow Me', and then led on to the release of an album entitled 'People', which is still well worth checking out if you haven't come across it before. For those who haven't heard 'Plàsi' previously, well he is half Swedish / half Greek artist, born Mik

Introducing... 'STINAKO' with track 'Kun Viimein Saavuit'

Andy Wors

Sep 27, 2019
2 min

Introducing... 'STINAKO' with track 'Kun Viimein Saavuit'

We just have so many new releases and interesting artists to write about today, and we probably won't get through all 10 on the list, but we'll just start writing and see how far we can get. A couple of weeks back we introduced you to new Finnish band 'Pink Chameleons', and it's great to see another release on the same excellent Soliti label, this time 'STINAKO', with her debut release 'Kun Viimein Saavuit'. Behind the name 'STINAKO' is the songwriter 'Stina Koistinen', who

Introducing.... 'J. Ihminen' with single 'Hetken'

Andy Wors

Sep 25, 2019
1 min

Introducing.... 'J. Ihminen' with single 'Hetken'

Just a quick new artist introduction this morning, before we get on with this mornings important tasks, which really should involve trying to lock up a corrupt despotic Prime Minister*, but in reality probably involves spreadsheets. I say 'introduction', because actually 'J. Ihminen' is not exactly new to Nordic Music Review, because he was featured as part of that great little Finnish Indie band we like so much, 'Giant Giant', whom I was only thinking about the other week.

'Elisif Norrman' - 'Hold your Light' (single)

Andy Wors

Sep 11, 2019
2 min

'Elisif Norrman' - 'Hold your Light' (single)

So this weeks plan is for 2 Album reviews and a pretty good selection of new artist introductions, but firstly we're delighted to re-introduce you to Swedish singer-songwriter 'Elisif Norrman' that we first wrote about almost 2 years ago when she released her debut video, and who has now followed that up with a new song entitled 'Hold your Light'. It was released just over one week ago, and there is a truly heartfelt story behind the song. It was written in memory of Hanna Ma

Andy Wors

Sep 2, 2019
3 min

'Marteinn Sindri' - 'Atlas' (album)

We wrote about Icelandic songwriter 'Marteinn Sindri' when he released his debut single back in 2017, after spotting him perform at Sofar Sounds - in a rare moment of being 'on the ball'. So we're delighted to re-start our writing with a few words about his beautiful debut album 'Atlas', which was released back in May, and which has just totally captured our hearts. At the time we thought he had the ability to write pretty special music, but I never imagined that 2 years late

Introducing 'Peer Nic' - with single 'Forever Lost'

Andy Wors

Sep 2, 2019
1 min

Introducing 'Peer Nic' - with single 'Forever Lost'

Going through 1600 emails is an arduous task, but I knew I'd drop upon some lovely gems along the way, and Norwegian artist 'Peer Nic' released a lovely single back in May, which I'm delighted to cover, albeit briefly and belatedly. So I guess I'd describe him as a 'traditional' singer songwriter, and the single 'Forever Lost' released a few months backs opens up very much in that style, but there is a sophistication and complexity in the instrumental arrangements courtesy of

'Forwardman' - with new songs 'Sleepwalk' and 'Out of the Ballpark'

Andy Wors

Aug 2, 2019
1 min

'Forwardman' - with new songs 'Sleepwalk' and 'Out of the Ballpark'

There's an album review about to be published (and it's a particularly good one at that), but there's just time to slip in a songwriter we haven't featured previously. It's always been good to feature artists who write with a truly 'indie' spirit, and Finnish born (but frequently UK based) songwriter 'Forwardman' certainly does that, with music that somehow bridges the gap between artists as diverse as Neil Young and Flying Lotus. Over the course of his musical 'career', 'For