Reading time: 2 minutes If there’s one certainty it’s that you’ll always get high quality releases from Oslo-based label Jazzland Recordings. This time it’s the turn of Ivan Blomqvist, …

Reading time: 2 minutes Josefin Winther is one of those artists who get a lot of exposure in these pages but it is fully justifiable. She’s a skilful song …

Reading time: 2 minutes Feeling down in the dumps? Need a bit of cheering up? Then don’t come here. I haven’t heard of a more aptly-named band than Nordic …

Reading time: 2 minutes Lowly is a new band to me but the quintet is well known in Denmark where they are classed as dream pop experimentalists. This track, …

Reading time: 2 minutes JUNI HABEL hails from rural Southern Norway where she lives in a converted school house with her grandmother. It was here, in an old classroom, …

Reading time: 2 minutes Having just watched a bore of a World Cup opening game I was looking for a pick-me-up and I didn’t anticipate it would come in …

Reading time: 2 minutes The more I learn about the Faroese music scene (and having seen Eivør for the first time only recently) the more I likee. A lot …

Reading time: 2 minutes The autumn nights might be drawing in but there’s nothing better than a slice of Aadal’s melancholic Norwegian jazz-rock fusion to warm you up. I’m …

Reading time: 2 minutes We’ve had some quite heavy duty compositions this week so time for a little pop. But not meaningless pop by any measure. In this song, …

Reading time: 2 minutes Today’s video follows the release of a new compilation album, ‘21’, from the “avowed eccentric” Mårten Lärka, which is a sort of ‘best of’ album. …

Reading time: 2 minutes Juha Kujanpää is a musician and composer working in and around jazz, rock, world and theatre music. He’s released three previous albums to very positive …

Reading time: 2 minutes Earlier this year Gurli Octavia put aside her artist moniker in favour of a new one, Summer Fry, and an up-tempo style. Even though her …

Reading time: 2 minutes GODTFOLKET – the band name means ‘The Good People’ (nice to know there are still some left) and they are a family concern, consisting of …

Reading time: 3 minutes One bleak, cold, dark Sunday afternoon in late November 2020 Marte Eberson looked out of her Oslo window to a depressing scene that’s very familiar …

Reading time: 2 minutes Karen Cecilie Cæsar (Sørensen) introduced herself in her homemade (and very professional) press statement by saying she hails from the Danish “mountains” near Aarhus. I …

Reading time: 2 minutes Ah, the rustic charms of rural Denmark. That’s where The Bridges hail from and it isn’t Madison County. Rather it is Præstø, in the countryside …

Reading time: 2 minutes Let’s get the geography right first. I do believe Dragongirl (Nikoline Ursin Erichsen) is Danish, and from Aarhus, one of the most prominent music cities …

Reading time: 2 minutes Sanna Martinez has an international name and I’m guessing she’s something of a polyglot too, having co-written songs for the Icelandic national final to select …

Reading time: 2 minutes Sometimes I surprise myself at the variety of the music in this publication. Already this week we’ve had deep creative indie-pop from Finland and a …

Reading time: 2 minutes It’s a couple of years since anything by Ellen Krauss passed my way and it looks as if she might have been out of action …

Reading time: 2 minutes I don’t think I can do justice to this album by selecting one track but after spending many hours listening to Stinako’s album last night …

Reading time: 2 minutes We welcome back Brynja rapidly after her single ‘My oh my’ just a few weeks ago. It features on her new album ‘Repeat’ which has …

Reading time: 2 minutes Sorting through a blizzard of submissions (is there anyone not releasing material right now?) I came across this song and video from One Eyed Mule …

Reading time: 2 minutes We rarely venture into the mainstream pop arena but I do so with Alexander Woods partly because the song is pretty good and partly because …

Reading time: 2 minutes There’s something a little edgy about this song from Johan Hoffman, something of the inner city about it and judging from the cover photo he …

Reading time: < 1 minute I haven’t seen a title that ominous for a while and it comes at the right time I suppose, what with everything that’s going on …

Reading time: 2 minutes Sval has been around on the scene for a decade already despite the fact she’s still only 23. Things began to change for her with …

Reading time: < 1 minute Expecting to hear soul music, I turned this on without reading about it first and I thought I was listening to the theme from TV …

Reading time: 2 minutes “Young hearts, be free tonight” or so sang Rod Stewart in ‘Young Turks’, a song notable for not having the title in its lyrics. And …

Reading time: 2 minutes Two thoughts immediately came to mind when I watched the video for this song; ‘soft rock’ and ‘road trip’, and I’m glad that Sam Shingler …

Reading time: 2 minutes A return for Rural Tapes (Arne Kjelsrud Mathisen) whom, I recall, featured in last year’s NMC ‘Singles of the Year’ list with what I described …

Reading time: 2 minutes Birds are better is a project of Stian Fjelldal, out of Oslo but originally from the remote southwest of the country I believe. (That’s about …