We’ve featured Icelandic artist Svavar Knútur before on this blog. In 2021, Jane discovered his music for us with a share of his single November, and then learned more about him in an interview.
By Graeme Smith
Proudly proclaiming to be “the only Svarar Knútur in the world” he is an artist that’s always revelled in his uniqueness. For the purposes of genre labels, you can call his music acoustic folk, but that description only goes so far in encapsulating what he’s putting out into the world.
It’s taken him fifteen years to get to this point: the release of his new album Ahoy! Side B. Side A of the project emerged in 2018 and that was supposed to be it, but Svavar couldn’t resist reinterpreting some of his old songs and split the album into two parts.
Side B opens with the aforementioned November and it’s a gentle and introspective start. The collection explores themes of grief and redemption and we get this straight from the off, with lyrics that draw on images such as fading candles to bring the emotion of it all to life. Mournful strings support Svarar’s compelling vocals and a dark breakdown injects some unexpected urgency.
The album sees him team up with Norwegian singer Helene Bøksle as well as Canadian singer Irish Mythen. It’s the latter who features on the album’s second track Hope and Fortune and the pair’s voices work beautifully together during its toe-tapping country folk story.
Refur sees Svarar give us some Icelandic lyrics during its delicate, choral moment, and The Tide Is Rising rounds off the album’s early running with a moody yet uplifting piano ballad. From there we are taken on an emotional journey that always keeps us guessing as to what will come next. Janúar is an unexpected experimental rock diversion while the “repainted” version of Emotional Anorexic has a strikingly cinematic climax. Impossible gives us some soft yet defiant folk pop before While The World Burns closes the album with a vulnerable, romantic and sardonic duet.
Ahoy! Side B is out now via Dimma Records and Nordic Notes, available to buy as a digital download via Bandcamp. You can check out the album below.
