Arny Margret

About

" Emotional folk sits where the mundane meets the sublime "

Icelandic acts must get sick of being compared to their glorious country’s famed environment, yet it so often fits. Arny Margret’s work, for example, is delicate and gloriously atmospheric, but also packs lyrical power: the comforting musical equivalent of an iceberg floating through the half-light of a bay in the northern fjords from which she hails.

“Sublime, wistful songs that draw on themes of love and longing” reads the description on Margret’s website, and its apt: there’s a beauty in Margret’s delicacy, a poignancy in the way she fuses shades of light and dark; hues of emotion and what feels like a musical search for meaning.

In fact, debut album ‘they only talk about the weather’ sounds a lot like a musician trying to uncover themselves as much as explore their environs. It’s the product of only a couple of years in the public eye, but also a lifetime of multi-instrumental exploration. The title is not entirely tongue in cheek: Margret does in fact reference the weather, admittedly unique in her location, as a major influence. The record has a subtle ebb and flow, like its lapping against a shoreline in the sepia colours of cottage-folk nostalgia. A standout is ‘sníglar’, another delicate guitar track absolutely steeped in nostalgia and delivered with a vocal that’s at the same time subtle and incredibly refined.

Earlier, Margret found beauty in ‘intertwined’, both an EP, and a track that tells the story of a relationship, talks about the weather, but also explores deeply personal connections, emptiness and the dark corners of our own minds. Her music feels beautifully self aware, like a brilliant self-assessment fused along the way with poetry and references to all that surrounds her. Margret lives in the same space as acts like ‘The Shins’, implicitly organic and personal, and her music, delivered in English, is home to the most brilliantly subtle, distinctive vocals, and beautiful for it.