We promised to feature a couple of new Icelandic artists, and the first is musician Marteinn Sindri, who we only came across recently, but it's proved good timing as he released his official debut single a couple of days ago entitled 'Spring Comes Late Sometimes'. Credit here should go to the always excellent Sofar Sounds, who've featured Marteinn, and he has a lovely assured folk influenced sound.
'Spring Comes Late Sometimes' is fairy self explanatory in terms of its subject matter, but what immediately impressed me as soon as I heard it is that the words have a really poetic feel, and it turns out that some of the lyrics originate from 18th century Icelandic poet Látra-Björg. Musically the intricate and flowing guitar playing reminds me of Sara Forslund from Sweden, but the vocals have a slightly different feel, a gentle soft charm where both voice and guitar are always 'at one' with each other.
The overall result is a lovely track , and there's also a video to go with it which was created by artist Katrín Helena Jónsdóttir, and which you won't be able to take your eyes off - it's compelling viewing. You can watch it here:
So Marteinn Sindri does play some fairly regular gigs in Reykjavik if you keep your eyes open on his Facebook page, I notice he also played the small Melodica Festival last August, which I'd love to get to myself sometime. For the rest of us, he is working on some more tracks in collaboration with Berlin based Daníel Friðrik Böðvarsson, and we'll bring you news of that when we get it.