Eem mooi liedje, mooi gezongen en uiterst mooi begeleidt op gitaar: meer moet dat soms niet zijn. Plak daar een uiterst sobere, maar oh zo prachtige video bij en 'den dezen' is verkocht. akureyri charmeert door een pakkend mooie eenvoud.
Haar debuut EP Intertwined verschijnt op 25 februari via One Little Independent Records
Check ook Intertwined Lees
Having spent the last few years honing her graceful, emotive acoustics and a lyricism and delivery that defy her age, Icelandic singer-songwriter Arny Margret 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.
