Grapevine New Music Picks: Gyða Valtýsdóttir, Fríd and Ægir

This week we bring you soaring soundscapes, serene underseascapes and cyclical clickscapes. Grab some proper headphones or plug into some decent speakers for this; your ears will thank us later. And check out everything we’re listening to right now on The Grapevine’s New Music Picks playlist.

Gyða Valtysdottir – Ox

Gyða’s latest album, ‘Ox’, may be her most intimate work to date—and that’s saying a lot for a composer, songwriter and musician known for the warm intimacy of her music. So much so that it’s hard to pin down a stand-out track; all the tracks on this album are fine-tuned and refined to the point of perfection.

This is an album for a candlelit night at home with a loved one, or for staring out of the window at the rain by yourself. It’ll warm your heart and cleanse your soul. A definite must-have, (and if vinyl’s your must-have format you can indulge that here). ASF

Fríd – Biðstaða

Fríd (Sigfrið Rut Gyrðisdóttir) plans to release her first album next year, and this sparse, gentle, breathy beauty is offered as a taste of what’s to come. “Biðstaða” is the first of her songs with lyrics in Icelandic, and is based on a poem by her father, Gyrðir Elíasson. It is reminiscent of being under the sea in gentle swell, swaying serenely back and forth as waves pass over you, with the accompanying video perfectly visualising that sensation. GC

Ægir – Tem End Lopo

tem end lopo by Ægir

Ever since Ægir assailed our ears last spring, recklessly wielding his glitchy breakbeat-fuelled power tool of a track “Look At Pretty Things”, The Grapevine has kept a careful eye on this lad. This four-track release is less confrontational but no less hypnotic, taking as its theme the cyclical clicks and rhythms created by a vinyl record once the music is done and the needle is sitting in the end loop. Using that sound as a foundation, Ægir morphs samples from the same record into fever-dream soundscapes that you can’t bear to be in, but won’t contemplate leaving. JP

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