New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Rökkurró return with a new studio album Innra, followed by a slot at this year's Iceland Airwaves in November and a series of tour dates in January, including Eurosonic Noordeslag.
Innra proceeds the internationally acclaimed Í Annan Heim record which spent 100 weeks in the Icelandic chart's Top 30 while international it garnered high praise from media such as NME, Clash, The Line of Best Fit, CMU Daily and the US' KEXP Radio.
The first taster from Innra came in the form of English-speaking album track Killing Time, which premiered on The Line of Best Fit and featured on The Guardian's blog late 2013, with the later describing the song as "warm, wonderfully textured number that finds stuttering rhythms judder underneath swelling instrumentals while the vocal's unshakable sense of longing will lingers well after the song has finished." This year, two successful singles have been released from Innra. The first, The Backbone (August) premiered on The Line of Best Fit in the UK, with the accompanying video premiering on Q Magazine in the UK and Under the Radar in USA. The second, Blue Skies (September), described as "alarmingly lush" and "graceful and passionate, emotive and poignant" by Gold Flake Paint who premiered the track.
The descriptions of the tracks are befitting for the album as a whole. There's a new electronic element to Rökkurró's, but one of synths mixed with gently textured, layered percussion. The result is a warm enveloping backdrop to singer Stefánsdóttir's gentle and at times subtly sultry vocals.
The three year gap between the two albums gave Rökkurró the space to meticulously expand their luscious palette into the beautiful, dreamy soundscapes that is Innra. New members Helga on piano and Skúli on bass have been added to the line-up and time spent by the bands members between Tokyo, London and Reykjavík inspired Rökkurró to record their first part-English speaking record.
As front woman Hildur Kristín Stefánsdóttir explains:
"Up until now all of our albums have been in Icelandic, which we felt suited the music we were making. We saw writing lyrics in English as a challenge and an open door for something new. It actually felt easier to write more honestly in English. I wasn't focusing as much on the poetic aspect rather than on my feelings what I wanted to express.
Innra is Icelandic for 'inner' or 'on the inside'. We feel this word describes the album adequately, as Innra is our most personal work to date. The lyrics are honest and sincere, they contain fewer made-up stories, and make more real-life references compared to our previous efforts."
Innra is produced by Helgi Hrafn Jónsson. The album is released on 27th October 2014 via Rökkurró
Music on CD, Vinyl and Digitally.
"Warm, wonderfully textured" -
Lauren Down / The Guardian
"Graceful and passionate, emotive and poignant" - Gold Flake Paint
"Inviting like a thermal spring" - NME
"Warm and organic... gorgeous lilts of silken texture" - The 405
"If Rökkurró can keep up this kind of achievement, they'll soon find themselves standing proudly next to their nation's greats." - The Line Of Best Fit
"High-quality melancholy" - NOISEY
"Beautiful orchestral sounds" - KEXP Radio
"A musical postcard from a world where, even after a turbulent journey, all landings are soft." - Kieron Tyler / The Arts Desk
INNRA TRACKLIST:
1. Borders - 4:21
2. Weightless - 3:53
3. Sigling - 4:48
4. Killing Time - 3:00
5. The Backbone - 4:28
6. White Mountain - 4:38
7. The In Between - 2:19
8. Flugdrekar - 5:18
9. Blue Skies - 4:07
10. Hunger - 4:19
11. Red Sun - 4:30
