New Nordic: Volume 6
Music by L.U:N.A, MAIH, Skaar with HILLARI and Kerstin Ljungström, songwriting with Astrid S, Halvdan Siversten goes on tour and our official playlist first 50 is revealed!
Welcome to Volume 6 of New Nordic where we focus on the vibrant Norwegian music scene.
Norwegian-French artist L.U:N.A (Mia Roussel) releases her first EP in four years, Only Me Again, this Friday following on from recent langt avstad (Far Away) and rundt blokken min (Around My Block) feat. Mo Ayn.
The six tracks including an opening track Do you see the light now? - which L.U:N.A describes as "absolutely insane".
Born in Chamonix and raised in Bergen she burst onto the Norwegian scene as 20 year old combining Norwegian and French languages in a unique and innovative mix with her debut debut EP Mon Anomi.
Her new EP is being billed as a ‘playful, complex and urban soundscape’, while to the first listen is also more serious island reflective in tone, done in collaboration with her older brother Leo Roussel. She explains:
"This project represents for me a chapter of mine that I went through about two years ago. I was surrounded by bad people who gave me bad experiences. I was tired of the small town I had lived in for 14 years. Tired of everyone the rumours that spread around me. I longed for something new, so I decided to move.
“There's a lot of emotion in this EP, more than I remembered. It's about a girl who has a lot of anger, regret and sadness inside. It's a girl who is quite lost and looking forward to finding herself again.”
Only Me Again is released on Petroleum Records on Friday.
🔴 Since graduating from the prestigious Norwegian music school LIMPI, rising pop star MAIH has been cementing her growing reputation as a songwriter to watch.
Hailing from Dale on the west coast of Norway, she graduated in 2022 after first being mentored by industry giants such as Emily Warren and Stargate. She signed her first record deal straight after.
Following her releases The Movie Of Us, You Don't Know Me Anymore, Mon Plaisir and Lover last year, he next single Red Sleeves, out on 5 April. Her debut EP is also set to drop this year.
Described as a tale of heartbreak and recovery with a sense of euphoria, it looks to connect with defiant broken hearts everywhere with an enjoyably blunt takedown of the dreaded "it's not you, it's me" line.
Deep bass and a chorus exploding in a joy of melody and colourful blasts of synth is how she describes the new work, adding:
"Red Sleeves is a song about choosing yourself and never bending to fit someone else's expectations of you ever again. It's made to be danced to in your room, screamed to in your car and to hype you up while getting ready for your day."
Red Sleeves is out 5 April.
❤️ And then there were three. Fresh from the success of her recent work with Emilie Nicolas on the title track of her debut album Mad Woman, Skaar is back with not one but two new collaborations.
She has teamed up with How Is Your Soul? artist HILLARI on a rework of the crowd pleasing Follow Your Heart, and Kerstin Ljungström for a Norwegian language version of the powerful Obscene. The new tracks are released this coming Friday.
🎸Astrid S talks about her forthcoming new album, songwriting in Nashville and building a career in the spotlight in this long read with NRKp3.
🧢 Five times Spellemannprisen winner Halvdan Siversten has just unveiled a new tour stretching into next year. With concerts right across Norway, tickets went on general release last Friday.
🎵 And in case you missed it, Good Stuff In Between have announced our first 50 songs making it onto the official Made In Norway Spotify playlist. Are any of your favourites on there? Click here to listen.