Recorded in her native Iceland, Sudden Elevation, Ólöf Arnald’s third full album and her first sung entirely in English, captures a rare and idiosyncratic songwriting talent in full bloom.
From the breezily skipping rhythm of opener German Fields to the pealing vocals of closer, Perfect, Sudden Elevation’s particular brand of heartache is magical, dislocated and otherworldly; its harmonies complex and quietly electrifying.
Produced again by long-time collaborator, Skúli Sverrisson, Sudden Elevation was largely recorded in a late autumn 2011 stint in a seaside cabin in Hvalfjörður (literally ‘Whale-fjord’), in the west of Iceland.