Farao

Having grown up in frosty Oslo, written and recorded in Reykjavik and relocated to London two years ago, maybe the sprawling musical diaspora of Kari Jahnsen’s new EP should come of no surprise. Combining wistful melodies, keyboards that quietly fizz in the backdrop of her finger-picked acoustic guitar murmurs and lo-fi bumps and whistles, all infused with a chilling Nordic iciness, this debut release might beguile like Polica and haunt like Lykke Li, but make no mistake about it – Farao is a sparkling new talent in her own right.

Recorded with Mike Lindsay from Brit experimenters Tunng, Jahnsen played all of the instruments across the four tracks here, carefully fashioning a gossamer bed of folk-pop sounds to lay her vocal ruminations on love, life and death on. Between the intense pulse and wonky organ sounds of ‘Tell A Lie’, released as a single in November to acclaim from the likes of The Line of Best Fit and Glamour Magazine, and the glockenspiel-propelled The Hours, threaded with dewey vocals about mistakes and regrets in the face of an apocalypse (“I would give all my time for the day but the hours they fly away, and the end of time is coming your way”), it’s a listen that recalls the stripped emotional crunch of Bon Iver, sumptuous textures of Polica and bravery of Laura Marling.

In 2013 Jahnsen brought her unique sound to The Great Escape, Secret Garden Party and Reeperbahn festivals, as well as venues across Europe as tour support to the likes of Karl Hyde of Underworld fame, Moddi, BOY and Icelandic superstar-in-the-making Ásgeir. Making her schedule even busier are side-projects in shoegaze band Hella Better Dancer (in which Jahnsen plays drums), Anna Lena and the Orchids and new Erased Tapes signing Douglas Dare’s backing band. It’s a wonder, then, that she’s found any time to pen a debut album – but she’s managed it all the same. That LP is expected to be released in late 2014.

In the meantime, this self-titled EP is a rich listen that teases at a bright, bright future for the newcomer. Be able to say you were there from the beginning.

“Farao’s subtly supernatural folk is the next big thing to come out of the fjords” Time Out