
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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Ivan Blomqvist (Sweden/Norway) – Tomheten (single/track from forthcoming album)
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, …
Josefin Winther (Norway) – Walking home (single)
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 …
Nordic Sad (Sweden) – ’Here to survive’ (single/track from EP Unity)
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 …
Lowly (Denmark) – You are good and I love you (single/track from forthcoming album)
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, …
Hög sjö (Sweden) – Gnosienne no. 6 (EP, forerunner to a debut album)
Reading time: 2 minutes Hög sjö translates as ‘high lake’ in Google. But ‘heavy sea’ according to the press release. Perhaps I’ll middle it and go for ‘heavy lakes’ …
JUNI HABEL (Norway) – Rhythm of the Tides (single/track from forthcoming album)
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, …
Nightwish (Finland) live at Resorts World Arena, Birmingham, 22 November
Reading time: 8 minutes It has been four long years, a twice postponed tour, a pandemic and several major events within the band since Nightwish last visited these shores, …
Maja Kristina (Sweden) – Someone I used to know (single)
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 …
Marius Ziska (Faroe Islands) – Í Aldingarðinum (In the Garden) (single/track from forthcoming album)
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 …
Aadal (Norway) – live at Matt & Phred’s, Manchester
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 …
Arina Mai (Denmark) – Paramount (single from forthcoming album/video)
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, …
Video Premiere – Mårten Lärka (Sweden) – Robot 22 (single)
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. …
Juha Kujanpää (Finland) – Old Ways, New Ways (title track from 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 …
Summer Fry (Denmark) – Good people don’t hurt their lovers like this (single)
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 …
GODTFOLKET (Denmark) – Ingen tid at spilde (single/track from forthcoming album)
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 …
Marte Eberson (Norway) – Have yourself a Merry Little Christmas (single/cover)
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 …
Karen Cecilie Cæsar (Denmark) – Slow Motion (sample track from debut album Low Season)
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 …
The Bridges (Denmark) – Daydreamers (debut single)
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 …
Down Memory Lane/From the archives – Sol Heilo (Norway) – Holde Rundt Deg (live solo performance)
Reading time: 3 minutes Believe it or not I’m at a loose end tonight, what with no new releases now until Friday this week, so I thought I’d take …
Dragongirl (Denmark) – Isolde’s Greatest Challenge (single/track from forthcoming album)
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 …
Sanna Martinez (Sweden) – Keep it Cool (title track from EP)
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 …
Variant Sea (Iceland/Ireland) – Threads (track from album Journey)
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 …
“atom” Chris Dall and Powerband (Denmark) – HJERTEBØRN (EP)
Reading time: 2 minutes Ok folks, its Friday night, its Bonfire Night (nearly), we’ve had some deep, serious music this week (Stinako, Pyy etc), and now it’s time to …
Ellen Krauss (Sweden) – Tie me down (single)
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 …
Pyy (Finland) – Jään Yli (Left over) – sample track from album MAAILMA LOPU
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 …
Stinako (Finland) – Ghostina (album)
Reading time: 5 minutes It can’t be easy to follow up an album, ‘Ikuisuus’ that was nominated for the Hyundai Nordic Music Prize, the equivalent of our Mercury Prize …
Brynja (Iceland) – Easy (sample track from the album ‘Repeat’
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 …
Video of the week – One Eyed Mule (Denmark) – What a beautiful ride (single/track from forthcoming album)
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 …
Alexander Woods (Denmark) – Stay (single)
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 …
Johan Hoffman (Sweden) – Not Safe (not sound) – single/track from forthcoming album
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 …
Mood Processor (Denmark) – The morning after (the end of the world) (single/track from forthcoming album)
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 …
Sval (Norway) – GRENADE (Single)
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 …
Uno Soul (Denmark) – Heartbroken Girl (single/ track from forthcoming album)
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 …
Eivør (Faroe Islands) – Live at Gorilla, Manchester, 22 October, 2022
Reading time: 3 minutes I’m sure that in the past I’ve jokingly referred to Eivør (Pálsdóttir)as Eivør the Engine after the animated steam engine with a will of its …
Weekend Intermission – Live Review – Angel Olsen (USA) at the Albert Hall, Manchester
Reading time: 4 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 …
Marte Eberson (Norway) – Young Hearts (single/track from forthcoming album)
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 …
Sam Shingler (Finland) – Home (single/track from forthcoming EP)
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 …
Rural Tapes (Norway) – Waltz for the living dead (single/track from forthcoming album)
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 …
Introducing Aadal (Norway) – Woodlands (sample track from album Lost Songs)
Reading time: 2 minutes I’m breaking a rule here by playing a song from an album that was released a long time ago, back in April, but there is …
Birds are better (Norway) – Marigold (Single/track from forthcoming album)
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 …