“I certainly think that the Faroes are the sort of place where wonderful things can happen. I believe it to be a place of magic.” This is what Icelandic musician, Pétur Ben, who played at the G! Festival in the Faroe Islands a few years ago had to say about the country. Out of this place of magic the somewhat eclectic singer-songwriter Marius Ziska has grown and matured into a truly original voice.
Marius Ziska was born and raised in Søldarfjørður – one of the small towns of a few hundred souls so characteristic of the Faroes. Marius became interested in music at an early age, and attributes much of his early interest for music to his father. When Marius was a small boy his father used to bring him along to work, and while they were driving they would always listen to the music that was playing on the radio. Whenever Marius and his father drove into one of the tunnels of the mountainous Faroes, the radio would stop working, and his father would say “Well, now the radio doesn’t work anymore, so now you’ll have to make up your own song!” Marius took this quite literally and actually started composing his first melodies on these trips.
Marius’ father soon recognized his son’s talent, and began to supply him with various instruments from an early age. Marius would also frequently listen to his father’s records comprised of amongst others The Beatles, Simon & Garfunkel, and the progressive rock band Exception.
Today Marius is the front man of a four-piece band that excellently manages to give life to his singer-songwriter songs, drawing on various influences from folk to rock to jazz to blues to country.
The forthcoming release by Marius, ‘Recreation,’ is the first full length CD that Marius has released since the band changed its musical style into the more acoustic sound that has been their trademark for the past few years. This does not mean, however, that the synths have been dropped altogether, for they are still there. They are just not as dominant as they used to be. This gives the new album a precarious sound that gets you right into a modern acoustic singer-songwriter kind of mood, while at the same time retaining some of the more pompous sounding synth sounds of the ’80s and ’90s. One of the most remarkable things about Recreation though is the choruses, they are quite simply spellbinding, and after hearing the album a couple of times you’ll find yourselves humming and whistling them over and over again, not being able to get them out of your head. But don’t worry, the haunting qualities of Recreation are not of the eerie kind, they are of the kind that makes your spirits higher, like the thoughts of a newfound love, and there is a difference…a big difference.
November 1, 2013
20:00 Gamla Bío
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