Rikke Normann (Norway) – Circles (single)
Reading time: < 1 minute Rikke Normann (Norway) – Circles (single) First appearance in NMC this year for Rikke Normann, the Queen of Living Room Shows delivered straight into peoples’
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Verandan (Finland) – Night (single)
Reading time: 2 minutes I came across Finnish band Verandan earlier this year, in January. It is a project by Ville Hopponen (of Cats on Fire and latterly The …
Nordic Music Central – Singles of the Year 2021
Reading time: 9 minutes With albums and EPs out of the way for this year (https://www.nordicmusiccentral.com/features-and-interviews/nordic-albums-of-the-year-2021/) it’s time to turn attention to the ‘Singles of the Year’. I was …
Evran (Norway) – Christmas Day (single)
Reading time: 2 minutes There are so many Christmas songs around at the moment I’ve lost track of them. I’d decided to try to avoid them here on in …
I’m Looking for Writers
Reading time: < 1 minute Nordic Music Central is growing faster than I expected. I’ve been blindsided. Keeping up with all the great music coming out of the five countries …
Tara Nome Doyle (Norway/Ireland) – Crow (single from the album Værmin)
Reading time: 2 minutes I had to think about this one. Does an Irish-Norwegian singer-songwriter with a very Irish name, born and raised in Berlin, qualify for a Nordic …
Nordic Albums of the year 2021
Reading time: 7 minutes Yes that time is here again. I don’t think there will be many new albums or EP releases between now and the end of the …
Weekend Intermission – Lisa Caruso (Australia) – It doesn’t feel like Christmas (single)
Reading time: 2 minutes Weekend Intermission is our regular feature where we look at an artist or band not from the Nordic countries, just to mix things up a …
Fieh (Norway) – Telephone Girl (single from forthcoming album In the Sun in the Rain)
Reading time: 2 minutes We’ve had some serious stuff this week so time to chill out on Funky Friday. You can’t get a better band to chill to than …
Lasse Matthiessen (Denmark) – Rome (track from EP Coordinates Remain)
Reading time: 2 minutes Another day, another artist I’m coming across for the first time, such is this wonderful journey through the Scandinavia walkways. Originally Copenhagen-based, Lasse Matthiessen hails …
Arttu Silvast (Finland) – ‘A Comforting Theory of Life’ (EP)
Reading time: 3 minutes I was attracted to this EP by the Finnish composer Arttu Silvast, who is currently based in Móntbeliard, France, by his declaration that “it combines …
Feature – SkarWorX’s (Norway) Five-Course Musical Feast
Reading time: 3 minutes This is the second in the feature series, the ‘Five Course Musical Feast’ in which an artist selects five songs, or albums, or music videos …
Dogsmile (Sweden) – The promised land (re-worked single from the EP Sparks from the Fire)
Reading time: 2 minutes I’ll be straight about this. Sometimes a band’s name puts me off. That’s the case with UK bands and artists The Lovely Eggs, Beans on …
Down Memory Lane – Baron Bane’s (Sweden) album LPTO
Reading time: 3 minutes The first of these ‘Down Memory Lane’ features in Nordic Music Central zeroes in on the Central Swedish ‘melancholic pop/electro/indie’ band Baron Bane, which is …
Weekend Intermission – Solis (UK) – Sunday (single)
Reading time: 2 minutes Weekend Intermission is our regular feature where we look at an artist or band not from the Nordic countries, just to mix things up a …
Brimheim (Faroe Islands/Denmark) – hey amanda (single)
Reading time: 3 minutes Brimheim (Helena Heinesen Rebensdorff), a lady with possibly the most doleful eyes I’ve seen, is the second Faroe Islander we’ve featured although she doesn’t live …
Trentemoller (Denmark) – Dead or Alive (single from the album Memoria)
Reading time: 2 minutes There used to be a British band called Dead or Alive, out of Liverpool and fronted by the enigmatic Pete Burns. Their best-know song was …
Dimma (Finland) – Minnet (Memory) (Single)
Reading time: 4 minutes I’m learning Finnish one word at a time. Today’s is ‘Minnet’ which is Memory, or more precisely ‘In Memory’ in English and that’s to where …
Gipsy Power (Sweden) – Magnetica Psychedelica (track from album Electric Threads)
Reading time: 2 minutes Gipsy Power were here only a few weeks ago but I’m glad to have them back on account of a couple of things in particular. …
Pikes (Sweden) – Wuhan (track from album Manasollasa)
Reading time: 3 minutes I wish I had more time to devote to this album which was released on November 18th but I’ve been limited to one track as …
Nordic Music Central Spotify Playlist #2 – November 2021
Reading time: < 1 minute This playlist has been put together sooner than I expected (end November) but there’s so much good stuff out there I couldn’t wait. For your …
Hallelujah! We’re listed in Feedspot’s Top 100 UK blogs!
Reading time: < 1 minute Well knock me down with a feather. I just learned that less than two months after we got underway we’ve entered the prestigious Feedspot ‘UK’s …
Color Dolor (Finland) – Blurry Things (album)
Reading time: 3 minutes There’s nothing blurry about Color Dolor’s past achievements, particularly the Finnish Teosto Prize win (roughly equivalent to the Mercury Prize in the UK although it’s …
Blue Raincoat (Sweden) – No Wonder (track from covers album Red flags & flying monkeys)
Reading time: 3 minutes If you’re going to cover anyone you may as well aim high, and that is what Blue Raincoat (or Blå Regnrock to give them their …
Laura Ziani (Denmark) – Money (debut single)
Reading time: 2 minutes Despite the Italian-sounding name I’m assured Laura Ziani is Danish. And when the PR insists that this, her first single, ‘Money’, “might as well be …
Kindsight (Denmark) – Don’t Grow Up (single)
Reading time: 2 minutes I’ve always been a sucker for a seductive female voice and that’s what you get from Kindsight’s front woman Nina Hyldgaard Rasmussen, who pitches somewhere …
Highasakite (Norway) – Love him anyway and Autopsy (double single release)
Reading time: 4 minutes Highasakite is one of only three artists or bands for whom I’ve made a foreign trip specifically to watch. That was before the five-piece broke …
Little Tall Island (Sweden?) – The Mourning After (from the album We are all stars)
Reading time: 3 minutes It’s a good job I like mystery tours. I’ve never come across anything quite as cryptic as this. The PR I received from a usually …
Aldrovanda (Sweden) – The Ichor in your Mouth (single)
Reading time: 3 minutes I admit I had to look up ‘ichor’. There are two meanings. The first is “the fluid that flows like blood in the veins of …
VON KONOW (Finland) – Into the Wild (II) (single from forthcoming album)
Reading time: 2 minutes When you’re asked to write about “this piece of art” it’s hard to resist the challenge. It comes from VON KONOW and is the second …
Helsinski (Finland) – Edging – sample track from album Waves of Pain
Reading time: 2 minutes I was almost fooled by the artist moniker. I’d already started writing that I’d never heard of an artist calling himself after a capital city …
Aurora (Norway) – Giving in to the Love (single/track from forthcoming album)
Reading time: 3 minutes I’m late with this one, almost a month. I was watching the 2021 John Lewis TV Christmas advert, the most anticipated one in the UK …
Xinombra (Sweden) – Staden (City) (single from forthcoming album)
Reading time: 3 minutes First time in NMC for Xinombra and as is often the case there is a story to tell. Firstly, the band. I saw them at …
The Brides of the Black Room (Sweden) – Sirens (single/track from debut album)
Reading time: 2 minutes ‘Goth’ is alive and unwell in Sweden as the number of artists that fall into that ‘genre’ that I’ve written about will testify. And quite …
Le Lac Long 814 (Sweden) Tessons Flottants (Floating shards) (album)
Reading time: 4 minutes If you haven’t encountered them previously Le Lac Long 814 is a project of two Swedes, Bengt Söderhäll (a poet) and Daniel Östersjö (vocalist/musician), who …
Horse Show (Sweden) – Hästskandalen (debut single from forthcoming debut EP)
Reading time: 2 minutes This is the first time we’ve strayed as far south in Sweden as Malmö, the country’s third city, and home to one end of a …
Ulrika Beijer (Sweden) – Heartland (track from the album The Lost Sessions)
Reading time: 3 minutes A few weeks ago I ran the rule over a new song by Sweden’s Gipsy Power which featured Ulrika Beijer and said her duet with …
Kate Havnevik (Norway) – Dream Her to Life (single from forthcoming album)
Reading time: 2 minutes Second time around in NMC for Kate Havnevik but she does have a new (fourth) album coming out on January 21st, titled ‘Lightship’, which is …
Feature – Stina Koistinen’s (Finland) five-course musical feast
Reading time: 3 minutes This is the first of what I hope will be a regular feature, the ‘Five Course Musical Feast’ in which an artist selects five songs, …
Sea Change (Norway) – Night Eyes (lead single from forthcoming album)
Reading time: 2 minutes I said in the very first post in NMC that you could expect to find anything in here, including club/dance and here is a track …
NMC is now on Instagram
Reading time: < 1 minute It’s been a ball ache (and still is, thanks to rules and regulations), but Nordic Music Central is now on Instagram if that’s your preferred …
