The Matador EP - free 4-track download, available now via Bandcamp
London Show at The Slaughtered Lamb 13th November
Praise for Sudden Elevation:
“Her most powerful release to date” Dan Cairns, Sunday Times
“A quiet ascension to the heights” Ally Carnwath, The Observer
‘It’s beautifully rounded with with subtle shifts in emotional and sonic tone...utterly compelling.” Sharon O’Connell, ****Metro
“Arnalds entrancing, spiralling voice defines this spare, crystalline album.” Kieron Tyler, ***Mojo
“Sounds as newly minted as the moment it was written.” Rob Young, 8/10 Uncut
“Tracks such as Return Again and The Joke sit amongst her finest.” The Fly
“Timeless folk-pop with sophisticated twists.” Tim De Lisle, ****Mail on Sunday
“Like her peers Joanna Newsome and Fiona Apple, Ólöf is always moving forward.” Q
Released earlier this year, Sudden Elevation, Ólöf Arnald’s acclaimed third full album – her first sung entirely in English - captures a rare and idiosyncratic songwriting talent in full bloom. Ólöf releases a new single from the album, Call It What You Want on 25th November to coincide with international shows including a UK date at the The Lexington (19th November). The full dates are as follows:
Nov 02 Around Iceland Reykjavik Iceland
Nov 13 The Slaughtered Lamb London UK
Ólöf also makes available a free download, The Matador EP comprising 4 Icelandic songs originally included as a cover-mount with Spanish art magazine Matador last year. Three songs (Lát vaxa, Blóm, and Hlið) were composed by Skúli Sverrisson with lyrics by Ólöf, while Af stað was written for Bjork’s Náttúra concert in Reykjavík in June 2008. The lyric of the latter song is based on an old Icelandic nationalist poem. “I twisted all the words around” explains Ólöf, “Making fun of the over-romanticised pride of our country and put the emphasis on how much nature gives us as people; the rest, the piece of mind, the inspiration, the big picture... I sung about how the Icelandic nation was literally getting drunk from individual gain and self-importance. Three months later the country´s economy collapsed…”
Produced again by long-time collaborator, Skúli, Sudden Elevation was largely recorded in a late autumn 2011 stint in a seaside cabin in Hvalfjörður (literally ‘Whale-fjord’), in the west of Iceland.
Click HERE for the free download