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

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

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: '

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

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,

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

So we have a couple of brief new artist introductions next, and we'll start with the Swedish / Åland Islands project 'Overkligheten', created by the musician 'Magnus Axelsson' who has performed in various punk and progressive rock bands. He released an EP entitled 'Ekarna på Ön' in the summer of 2018 (which I've enjoyed listening to this morning), and he's back now with another track called 'Bruset'. This has really grown on me over a few listens, as often is the case with DI

So we've covered 3 bands already today, and we have a couple of songwriters next who both bring a different perspective to their songwriting. Eli Gauden is Norwegian, somewhat inevitably hailing from Bergen, and the influences behind her music lie in more traditional songwriters such as John Mayer and Leonard Cohen, as well as (even more inevitably) the natural surroundings of her native Norway. It was her studies in the USA that helped influence the style of her music, which

We've got a couple of slightly 'different' things today, and the first is a Danish artist who has recorded a lovely song in aid of the British charity 'Help Musicians UK'. This is a great charity that supports musicians in need (and their families) of all genres, and at all stages in their careers and in retirement too - we've included the links below, please have a look below if you have chance. Anyhow, as part of their awareness and fundraising campaigns they are about to

If 'Marcus Admund Funck' sounds to you like the perfect name for a new Indie Pop songwriter in the making, well we have good news for you because a man with that very name has just released his second single, and it's a really enjoyable song that we wanted to bring to your attention. He first performed as a solo musician when he was just 16, but has actually spent years playing with one of our favourite bands, 'Honeymilk', before deciding to venture out on his own, and follo

We wrote about Norwegian musician 'Vetle Forsell' last November when debuting with the single 'In Waiting', a fascinating and moving song which described sitting waiting in Australia for his father to arrive for support after a mental breakdown. Now Vetle is back with a new song entitled 'Strange Clouds', and it's another quietly contemplative and thoughtful song from the Stavenger born songwriter who has this ability to quite naturally deal with challenging issues through h