popplagið.com Ólöf Arnalds - Við Og Við  CD 2007

Produced by Kjartan Sveinsson

5016958116422  - TPLP1033CD

1 Englar Og Dárar 2:59
2 Í Nýju Húsi 4:34
3 Klara 2:28
4 Við Og Við 5:39
5 Orfeus Og Evridís 5:37
6 Vittu Af Mér 4:14
7 Moldin 3:21
8 Náttsöngur 4:32
9 Skjaldborg 3:03
10 Ævagömul Orkuþula 1:58

Ólöf Arnalds is an Icelandic singer and multi-instrumentalist. Classically educated on the violin, viola and self-taught on guitar and charango, Ólöf’s most distinctive asset is, nonetheless, her voice. A voice of instantly captivating, spring water chasteness possessed of a magical, otherworldly quality that is simultaneously innocent yet ancient (“somewhere between a child and an old woman” according to no less an authority than Björk).

While she has been favourably compared with the likes of Vashti Bunyan, Judee Sill and Kate Bush, Ólöf’s approach to making music remains highly individual: playful but intimate; accessible and uplifting, yet deeply personal and suffused with a timeless mystique that goes beyond the puckish inscrutability of her native tongue. Ólöf has also quickly proved herself as a magnetic, utterly self-assured stage performer, reliant as much on screwball humour, vaudevillian charm and even outright bawdiness, as much as the contrasting delicacy of her song delivery.

Recorded by Sigur Rós’s Kjartan Sveinsson, directly to tape, Ólöf’s 2007 debut, Við Og Við is an album of ingeniously adorned whole take performances, whose charged minimalism creates an inimitable world of its own. The album would duly accrue a sheaf of accolades at home, including Best Alternative Album at the Iceland Music Awards and a Record of the Year gong from Iceland’s principal daily newspaper, Morgunblaðið.