Het is soms zwoegen, onze mailbox doorploegen. Maar wanneer ik dan tussen al dat metalen geweld een juweeltje als deze ontdek, dan heb ik toch weer dat gevoel dat de tijd die erin kruipt de moeite loont.
Hoewel ik toch wat sceptisch blijf wanneer ik het beeld zie van een meisje met een gitaar en dan lees dat de muziek wordt omschreven als folk. Ik vrees dan het ergste: geitenwollensokkenmuziek gezongen door een zoveelste engelenstemmetje, een falset vanzelfsprekend, en wat akoestisch gestreel op zes snaren. Gaan lopen, dat doe ik wanneer ik het hoor. Arny Margret echter had me snel bij de lurven en trok me zachtjes over de streep, ervoor zorgend dat ze me niet bruuskeerde en dat ik volledig uit eigen beweging aan het luisteren ging. Echt luisteren, om te genieten. Want Arny heeft stevige schoenen aan, geen geitenwollensokken in sandalen. Haar stem balanceert tussen iets diepere tonen en een hoogte die ik net aankan. Wat ze op de gitaar doet is niet spectaculair, maar overstijgt het gemiddelde folk riedeltje.
Slim is ze ook, want haar eerste worp is beperkt tot vier nummers en die boeien stuk voor stuk. Het zal ondertussen geweten zijn dat ik niet moet hebben van albums die vijftien nummers tellen waarvan ik er dan vijf moet skippen. Act tot twaalf sterke songs, meer moet dat niet zijn. Niet evident gezien het laatste wat een artiest wil doen is 'killing their darlings' en je weet natuurlijk nooit of die éne song al dan niet zal aanslaan. No worries Arny, deze selectie is viermaal top, waarvoor dank.
Releasedatum: 25 februari 2022
luister
lees
Icelandic singer-songwriter Arny Margret is in the process of making her eagerly anticipated arrival with the announcement of her debut EP, ‘intertwined’, out via One Little Independent Records on February 25th. It comes alongside new single ‘akureyri’ and its accompanying video, directed and edited by Guðmundur Kristinn Jónsson and Arny herself, with cinematography by Hákon Hjartarson.
Having spent the last few years honing her graceful, emotive acoustics and a lyricism and delivery that defy her age, she appears amongst no small amount of local buzz, fresh from playing Iceland Airwaves ‘Live from Reykjavík’ event alongside the likes of John Grant, Ásgeir and more.
Vivid imagery colours deeply personal writing across the whole EP. Each track tells a story of self-reflection and looking back at the people and places that have informed who she is today.
Of opener ‘intertwined’ Arny recalls sitting in a small dorm-room in Denmark, staring out of its single window overlooking the scenic landscape, and how memories both good and bad flooded over her amidst the solitude. She tells us; “Past experiences kept coming back to me while I was living in Denmark, everything around me was different. It took some time to get used to. The weather somehow always makes a way into my songs, I use my dreams and my memories, words or phrases. And one day I came up with the lyric ‘our pasts are intertwined’ as if you’re connected to someone you don’t want to be connected to”.
Through continuous writing and revaluating, the song developed naturally over a number of weeks. Arny prefers to allow her songs to evolve themselves, intrinsically linked as they are to their surroundings. “It was winter by the time I was adding the final touches, I was back home when I recorded the harmonies, and it came together, music is weird like that”.
Stunning new single ‘akureyri’, named after the city at the base of Eyjafjörður Fjord in northern Iceland, echoes a similar narrative from a slightly different perspective. “I know I’m weak / when you say that I am weak” she sings, about how you judge yourself unfairly through the eyes of those that would put you down.
It’s followed by a majestic, honest cover of John Hartford’s country gem ‘In Tall Buildings’. Arny tells us she was “drawn in by his beautiful lyrics, a man saying goodbye to everything as he leaves to go to work”. The concept further solidifies the EPs key themes, as closing track ‘sometime’ plays with the metaphor of a wallet left on a table, “it’s about leaving something behind so that someone might notice, to see if someone might remember you even if you aren’t there”.
Arny Margret is from the Westfjords, a sparsely populated and confined peninsula in north-western Iceland. Born and raised in a small town called Ísafjörður, she attended music school from the age of 6 learning to play the piano and gradually taught herself guitar. Through the few pieces she’s shared, a feeling of isolation resonates, seeping through her dulcet tones and delicate strumming, conjuring images of mountain tops blocking the winter sun and clear, cool ocean stretches.
She cites influence from the likes of Adrianne Lenker, Aldous Harding and fellow Icelander Ásgeir. She’s currently recording her debut album at studio Hljóðriti in Hafnarfjörður and beginning to make her mark globally with her intimate and affecting live performances.
