Ólöf Arnalds’ last album PALME was eleven years ago. Since then, the Icelandic woman’s activities have focused on her home island, where Arnalds raised children and ran a venue for experimental music with her partner in Reykjavík. The former has a significantly greater impact on SPÍRA, German: sprout.
As on her early albums, Arnalds sings in her native language and keeps the instrumentation acoustic and airy: guitar, piano, plucked violin, charango. Her idiosyncratic, ethereal soprano in the style of Joanna Newsom doesn’t need much around it, especially when it forms such heavenly melodies as in the longing “Von um mildi” or the thoughtfully swaying “Stein fyrir Stein”, to which you could actually jump from stone to stone quite wonderfully barefoot.
The folky atmosphere with a traditional touch ranges from gentle buoyancy to elegy with ghostly choir and organ traces. However, there can be no question of any harsh breaks. Nuances remain. And SPÍRA is as cuddly as a fleece blanket. Not the worst tool for loud, dark times.
This review appears in Musikexpress 1/2026.