ICELANDIC COMPOSER EYDÍS EVENSEN SIGNS TO NEW SONY IMPRINT XXIM RECORDS
RELEASES DEBUT SINGLE AND VIDEO ‘BROTIN’
XXIM Records, Sony Masterworks’ new imprint for innovative, progressive instrumental music, is proud to welcome Icelandic pianist and post-classical composer EYDÍS EVENSEN to its artist family. EVENSEN’s debut single, ‘BROTIN’, is available digitally from today marking the label’s first official release.
EVENSEN, who was recently selected by The Line Of Best Fit as one of their ‘Artists On The Rise 2021’, hails from the remote town of Blönduós in the north of Iceland. Drawn to music from an early age, she began studying the piano aged six and wrote her first piece of music as a seven-year-old. Having abandoned her plans to become a professional classical pianist, however, EVENSEN instead moved to London and New York, where she worked in various jobs while focussing on developing her language as a composer. She returned to Iceland in 2020 to record her debut album, BYLUR, which is slated for release by XXIM this spring.
Of signing to the label, EVENSEN says, “I’m incredibly excited and grateful to have the opportunity to release my very first album on the new imprint, and to be working alongside such a wonderful international team.”
EVENSEN’s manager, Nick Knowles of KxKn Management, added “we look forward to beginning this journey with the incredible team at XXIM Records and Sony in bringing Eydís’ music to a worldwide audience.”
Alexander Buhr, SVP of International A&R at Sony Masterworks, comments, “Eydís is a hugely promising artist with a remarkable flair for both music and visuals. We are very excited to introduce her to the world, and to have ‘BROTIN’ set the tone for our new label.”
‘BROTIN’ – which means ‘broken’ in Icelandic – is EVENSEN’s first glimpse into her musical universe, and it’s a deeply felt instrumental piece for piano written, she confides, at a time of singular personal vulnerability. The song is accompanied by a music video created by EVENSEN and acclaimed Icelandic photographer Anna Maggý.
“BROTIN represents my most vulnerable emotional state,” EVENSEN explains. “My good friend Anna and I developed the concept for the video in relation to the feelings that ‘BROTIN‘ reflects: isolation, a sense of being emotionally overwhelmed, and of essentially being broken.” Maggý says, “It felt surreal shooting this music video during the darkest, roughest and coldest hours of wintertime in Iceland, and this added to the suffocating solitude.”
Preview the Video for Brotin:
‘BROTIN’ was the final piece EVENSEN composed for her debut album BYLUR, which was recorded and produced at Reykjavík’s Greenhouse Studios by its co-founder, composer Valgeir Sigurðsson, who has also worked with a varied array of artists, including Björk, Nico Muhly and Ben Frost. The album takes its name from the Icelandic word for ‘snowstorm’, and is reflective of both the impact that the nature and weather had upon her as a child growing up in her homeland’s remote, northern region, and of the emotional turbulence she went through in her years of travel. “All of the pieces represent moments from my life,” EVENSEN concludes. “So many ups and downs: all of my joy, darkness, happiness, heartbreak and melancholia.”
Further details about BYLUR will be revealed soon.
Connect with Eydís Evensen: