Short List Announced for Top Albums of the Year

Kraumur Music Fund announced today the nominees for this year’s Kraum List—the Fund’s annual prize for Icelandic albums of the year. The following 20 albums made the judges’ short list, but only five will win a spot on the actual Kraum List 2010, to be announced later this month:
Agent Fresco – A Long Time Listening
Amiina – Puzzle
Apparat Organ Quartet – Pólyfónía
Daníel Bjarnason – Processions
Ég – Lúxus upplifun
Jónas Sigurðsson – Allt er eitthvað
Kammerkór Suðurlands – Iepo Oneipo
Miri – Okkar
Momentum – Fixation, At Rest
Moses Hightower – Búum til börn
Nolo – No-Lo-Fi
Ólöf Arnalds – Innundir skinni
Prinspóló – Jukk
Retro Stefson – Kimbabwe
Samúel Jón Samúelsson Big Band – Helvítis Fokking Funk
Seabear – We Built a Fire
Sóley – Theater Island
Stafrænn Hákon – Sanitas
Valdimar – Valdimar
Quadruplos – Quadroplos
This year’s panel of judges consists of 12 persons involved with reporting on or broadcasting music who, like in the past two years, intent to honour work that is distinguished with regard to “quality, ambition, and originality”, according to Kraumur’s website.
Two of the bands nominated this year, Retro Stefson and Agent Fresco, made the Kraum List in 2008.
In addition to a monetary prize, the winning albums will receive support from the Music Fund in the form of promotion abroad:  in collaboration with the Icelandic Music Export, the Fund plans to buy around 100 copies of each of the winning records in order to distribute them to “various employees in the music business abroad.”
One of the rules of the Kraum List award is that the artists involved be Icelandic citizens.
The date of the release of the final list has not been confirmed, but in the past winners have been announced in mid-December.