By We’re not quite sure how Faroese electronica artist Eivør slipped under our radar before, but we’re glad she’s on it now. We stumbled upon her new single Only Love, and through that discovered her latest album Segl.
Eivør makes electronic folk pop but don’t be put off by the description. Similarities have been drawn between Eivør and Kate Bush and her Segl album is full of sweeping epic tracks.
Influences
So what do we know about her? Well, she was born and raised in Syðrugøta, a tiny community of just over 400 people on one of the northerly Faroe Islands. She grew up surrounded by windswept landscapes and this backdrop influences her sound today.
Immersed in music from the age of 13, Eivør once fronted a trip-hop band after discovering seminal albums by Massive Attack and Portishead. At 16, Eivør quit school and moved to Reykjavik, Iceland, to release her debut album and train in classical singing.
Eivør won the Icelandic Music Prize twice – the first non-Icelandic artist to do so. Her music soundtracks the current series of The Last Kingdom (co-written with Ivor Novello/BAFTA-nominated John Lunn). Eivør’s music has also been synched on Homeland and Game of Thrones. UK tastemaker Jools Holland invited her to perform on his Later… With show after hearing her 2017 album Slør.
Chaotic and Abstract
“My creative process can be very chaotic and abstract so I need to find the space to dive deeper into it and sculpt it,” said Eivør. “After sitting on songs for a year or more, I’d go in and edit the melody or the lyrics. Sometimes the production too. The whole Segl album is very much about change so it’s quite apt.”
With its sweeping soundscapes, grand strings, ethereal and slightly anguished vocals and dark undertones, Segl could be described as chamber pop. This City, in particular, is a track Manchester band Hurts could have produced in their early days. Poet Marjun Syderbø Kjælnes wrote the lyrics for the spine-tingling Gullspunnin, while new single Only Love was written with David Hopkins and features guest vocals from Ásgeir.
“Visiting other people’s creative world and inviting them into mine… something magical happens when two different worlds meet,” said Eivør. “It expands the space. And it’s full of contrast; that’s quite interesting to me.”
Check out the video for Only Love below:
