Pianist/composer Ólafur Arnalds forward thinking OPIA project, part performance festival, part label, part community builder, is making a habit of bringing illusive talents out into the wider spotlight. You might remember the exquisite Costa Rican pianist/composer Sofi Paez and pedal-steel soundscaper Davidsson from last year, well here’s a new name to add to your ‘listen out for’ listing, RAKEL.
Rakel Sigurðardóttir aka RAKEL is an Icelandic singer/songwriter who loosely drifts around the alt-folk space but with an ear on the atmospheric and orchestral. She’s been calmly releasing her reflective songs since her 2021 debut EP ‘Nothing Ever Changes‘ including a 2022 collab album with Reykjavík music-study buddies ZAAR and Salóme Katrín plus a second solo collection Canyouhelpmeimfeelingalone earlier this year.
Now she’s been welcomed into the OPIA collective it looks like momentum is justifiably going to pick up for RAKEL. A full album ‘a place to be’ is due on the shelves in October but until then here’s a softly powerful place-holder in the shape of the single Rescue Remedy.
It’s an entrancing almost break-up song which RAKEL describes as shaped by “the lingering pull of someone’s presence, but also the growing sense that it’s time to let go”. Time ticking guitar patterns, succulent woodwind which converses around the vocal melody and RAKEL’s emotive voice, gliding deep and soaring high shape the tune. There’s an ML Buch-like edge about the song, RAKEL’s lines gently altered by a hyperpop/autotune tweak so when she sings “Would you me be my responder, would you rescue me”, the anguish really reaches out.
A restorative, affecting announcement then, from an artist whose songs look set to resonate further- ‘a place to be’ sounds like the place to be, come October.
Stream ‘Rescue Remedy’ by RAKEL on SPOTIFY HERE
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