Fever Ray
Every now and then you come across a musician that makes you sit and listen in awe; a musician which gives you no choice but to enter their world. Karin Dreijer Andersson is a most persuasive tour guide into the darkly dreamy world of Fever Ray.
Karin and her brother, Olof Dreijer, constitute the magnificent duo The Knife. In addition to having their album, Silent Shout, named best album of 2006 by Pitchfork, they also were nominated for and won all 6 Swedish Grammys in 2007. They were gaining great international attention much deserved recognition. But then it was time for a break. Karin had a child but couldn’t stop writing. In early 2009, we experienced the result of her post-natal daydreaming and writing: Fever Ray, both the title of the project and the album.
While recognizably 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), but Fever Ray is starker, moodier, and in places quite somber. While it may sound like various artists on the album, it is all Karin plus the help of various voice modulators.
“Sometimes, when you’re as old as I am now, you think you’re going to quit, and people around you think you’re going to quit. But then you have days when you realise how good music can be, there’s so much left to explore and so much left to do. That’s why I sometimes feel I’ll never quit.”
Here are three of our absolute favorite Fever Ray videos. Enjoy!
Seven from Fever Ray on Vimeo.
When I Grow Up from Fever Ray on Vimeo.
If I Had A Heart from Fever Ray on Vimeo.
-bradley smith
5 Responses to “Fever Ray”
this is just breathtakingly amazing
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Stunningly amazing! Love all the videos! Karin is the best of all electronic musicians!
every time i hear something new i need a couple of listenings to get used to it.
fever ray does the great exception of composing both the audios and the videos in such a manner that they slowly welcome, you in their artistic world, they don’t leave you another choice but to get inside their universe.
even if i like the music alot, i cannot imagine such solid art exist without the visual part. i have only stumbled upon fever ray 1 week ago and i already wait to see one of the live performances and get to know the presentational part of this wonderful project.
I had no idea this was a different project outside of The Knife, I assumed they just went into another direction, however both are exceptional. Its funny how authentic musical artist grow with their fan base…I listened to The Knife religiously a few years ago and when I heard this, I was thrilled to see their aesthetic hadn’t shifted too much, however the mood and tone, definitely has become even more powerful. (slash) I loved seeing COWS in a music video(sidenote). Its hurts to see commercial artist hold on their genre in a depressing effort to stay popular and or relevant. I love Madonna STILL, however I don’t want to see her thrust her vagina into a camera anymore. Outside of the above average imagery and perpetually stimulating instrumentals of The Knife and Fever Ray, Karin’s voice is a audio dream from which I hope to never wake.
best.
dez