Fever Ray on Pitchfork
March 31, 2009 Posted by admin at 9:38 am
Influential independent online magazine Pitchfork has reviewed Fever Ray‘s self-titled debut album, giving the record 8.1 out of 10!
Below is an excerpt from the review, which says of the album – “committed listens will reveal this to be as nuanced and as rich of a production as anything either Dreijer has done.”
Pitchfork Best New Music, March 20, 2009
“The highlights are many. Opener “If I Had a Heart” is a shivering, timely meditation on greed, immorality, and lust for power that dovetails nicely with AIG and Madoff (“This will never end cause I want more/ More, give me more, give me more”); “I’m Not Done” is a pressurized squall that culminates with Karin dueting with a helium-voiced version of herself; while seven-minute closer “Coconut” rumbles on a pattern of synths and staccato drums before a ceremonious wall of voices arrive at the midpoint to march it to a close. Except, “close” implies it was written: the more time you spend with Fever Ray, the more you become convinced that these songs aren’t written so much as they’re temporarily let out. They’re too starved, too eerie, and too transfigured to have been anything but.”
‘When I Grow Up’ video online now
February 17, 2009 Posted by admin at 9:40 am
The video for When I Grow Up by Fever Ray has premiered this morning at feverray.com
When I Grow Up is a slow-burning, beat-driven and strangely optimistic number characterised by Karin’s inimitable lyrical style, name-checking forestry, boomerangs, crab claws and cucumbers in a surprisingly domestic picture. The video itself, directed by Martin De Thurah, is a melting pot of references from David Lynch to Stephen King’s Carrie, with a profound feeling of voyeurism and foreboding.
Speaking about the conception of the video, De Thurah had this to say:
“The initial idea was about something coming out of water – something which was about to take form – a state turning into something new. And a double headed creature not deciding which way to turn. But the idea had to take a simpler form, to let the song grow by itself. I remembered a photo I took in Croatia two years ago, a swimming pool with its shining blue color in a grey foggy autumn landscape.”
Fever Ray NME Magazine RADAR
February 13, 2009 Posted by admin at 10:58 am
Fever Ray has just been featured in NME Magazine as an ‘Artist to Watch’ in RADAR, the magazine’s monthly feature for profiling exciting new talent.
Doesn’t that look amazing?!
It is the first time Radar has run across a double page in the magazine – NME’s editor thought the image was so stunning, they didn’t want to put it on just one single page!
Fever Ray on TV and on Tour
January 30, 2009 Posted by admin at 2:34 pm
Part Bill Henson, part Jim Jaramusch, the video for Fever Ray’s If I Had A Heart is one spooky clip indeed! Catch it making its Australian Television debut tonight on Rage!
In other Fever Ray news, Karin announced details this week for her first set of live shows. The stint will see Karin and a four piece band play dates in Norway, Denmark and her home, Sweden.
Fever Ray European tour dates are as follows:
Thursday, March 19th Norway, Oslo, Parkteatern
Friday, March 20th Sweden, Malmö, Babel
Saturday, March 21st Sweden, Gothenburg, Storan
Sunday, March 22nd Denmark, Copenhagen, Vega
Thursday, March 26th Sweden, Stockholm, Kägelbanan
Friday, March 27th Sweden, Umeå, Umeå Open
Saturday, March 28th Sweden, Luleå, Kulturens hus
And more dates will be unveiled shortly, Watch this space for more information, and keep your fingers crossed she hops on a plane to Australia soon!
Fever Ray album unleashed!
January 12, 2009 Posted by admin at 4:40 pm
Australian national youth broadcaster Triple J have chosen the stunning debut album from Fever Ray to run as the Feature Album all this week. If in Australia, tune in on 105.7 FM, or sample the album by listening on the Triple J website.
The airings co-incide with the international embargo finally lifting, so you can now buy the album in all its glory from iTunes as of today. Go on…what are you waiting for?!
Fever Ray
January 12, 2009 Posted by admin at 12:00 am
Fever Ray, aka Karin Dreijer Andersson, one half of The Knife, is set to release her debut self-titled album on March 21st 2009 on etcetc.
Fever Ray is the title, of both project and album, an evocation of the music’s sound, intense and anxious, yet luminous. It’s the culmination of work that began in 2007 when Karin and Olof, the brother-sister duo who are The Knife, decided to take time out following a handful of incredible live shows. Their first two albums did well in their Swedish homeland; their third, Silent Shout, went to Number One, won six Swedish Grammys, underlined their reputation as an act capable of the truly extraordinary and was pronounced the best record of 2006 by Pitchfork.
After having her second child and eight months of the most productive daydreaming later, Karin had a batch of new songs and the raw materials for the production of Fever Ray. Unsure how to get them over the finishing line, she took half to Christoffer Berg (who mixed The Knife’s work), half to Stockholm production duo Van Rivers & The Subliminal Kid for a final brush and tickle.
The result is Fever Ray, an album that, while recognisably the work of the same artist, is dramatically different from The Knife. It’s still constructed on electronic foundations and embellished with traditional instrumentation (guitar here, congas there).
Despite some upbeat moments (Triangle Walks, I’m Not Done), Fever Ray is starker, moodier, in places quite sombre – less an invasion, more a slow process of colonisation. Not that you’ll find anything so literal in the lyrics.
One thing’s for sure – in a country with a wealth of leftfield pop artists, Karin Dreijer Andersson sounds like no one but herself. Constantly inventive, restlessly emotive, Fever Ray swaggers, broods, intrigues and dazzles without ever making concessions to the soap opera demands of modern media.
“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.”
Opportunity taken, Fever Ray works its magic. Here’s your chance to fall under its spell.
Fever Ray’s debut single If I Had A Heart is available now on iTunes. The debut self-titled album is released on March 21st 2009 on etcetc, through Universal Music Australia.
Tracklisting:
1. If I Had A Heart
2. When I Grow Up
3. Dry & Dusty
4. Seven
5. Triangle Walks
6. Concrete Walls
7. Now’s The Only Time I Know
8. I’m Not Done
9. Keep The Streets Empty For Me
10. Coconut
‘If I Had A Heart’ video premiere
January 7, 2009 Posted by admin at 10:40 am
Here it is! The first moving-picture piece of the Fever Ray puzzle, recently premiered worldwide on Pitchfork. Superbly shot by Andreas Nilsson (responsible for the equally haunting video for The Knife‘s Silent Shout), the clip perfectly sets the tone for the new solo project by one half of The Knife, Karin Dreijer Andersson.
If I Had A Heart is the first single (out now on iTunes), from the debut self-titled album from Fever Ray released 21st March on etcetc.
If I Had A Heart from Fever Ray on Vimeo.
Fever Ray ‘If I Had A Heart’ single release
December 12, 2008 Posted by admin at 3:35 pm
What would you do if one decade into your career you suddenly saw one of your songs turned into a worldwide hit, won six Grammys in your native Sweden, and your latest release was declared album of the year by one of the world’s most influential music websites? If you’re Karin Dreijer Andersson, formerly singer with ‘90s pop hopes Honey Is Cool and now one half of The Knife, the answer is to take a couple of years off and return as a solo artist under a new name: Fever Ray.
In Karin’s own words, “I had so many songs to record that I just had to make an album. I thought I was going to have a longer break but I guess it will never happen. I can’t stop working. My aim was to finish the album and now that it’s done I’m a bit restless (good that The Knife has an opera to write then.) During the last years I discovered that I like to sing too, so I hope that my newly found live band will make it to the stages next year. We are rehearsing and building something beautiful and brilliant.”
If I Had A Heart is the first single from Fever Ray: a stirring mantra, a boundless loop, a deep sleep spreading over fields and endless oceans. A dark evocation of hope and a demand for “more, give me more”. Music and lyrics by Fever Ray, and the track was produced by Fever Ray & Christoffer Berg. The video for If I Had A Heart was directed by Andreas Nilsson.
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