Fever Ray

// ARTIST

Fever Ray is an evocation of the music’s sound, intense and anxious, yet luminous. She is one half of the electronic music duo The Knife, and previously the vocalist and guitarist of the '90s alternative rock band Honey Is Cool. Dreijer released her debut solo album under the alias Fever Ray in January 2009. 

Her vocal style is notable for both shrill and deep tones, and also the use of multitracked vocals, with different uses of pitch-shifting technology on each track, creating an intricate and mysterious effect. Visually, Dreijer employs the use of masks, face and body paint, intricate costumes, and other theatrical elements in photo shoots, videos and live performances, during which she often performs behind a gauze screen that partially obscures her from view.

One thing’s for sure – in a country with a wealth of leftfield pop artists, Fever Ray sounds like no one but herself. Constantly inventive, restlessly emotive, she swaggers, broods, intrigues and dazzles. “I think the music should be able to stand for itself without interfering, like what the artist looks like. That’s something you find out during the process, it’s a steady ongoing process about how you survive. When you work with music, you have the possibility to create magic.”