Drummer-turned-front person Øyunn has quickly become renowned as one of Scandinavia’s most adventurous and innovative artists. With a sound that defies boundaries, Øyunn (born Siv Øyunn Kjenstad) won a host of awards for debut album Aspects (released in 2024) and her sophomore long player I Know You Can Do It has the same kind of exploratory feel, blending and bending genres to map new musical territory. Featuring eight tracks that flow seamlessly between trip hop, indie, krautrock and rap, then delivered with a free form jazz sensibility, this album takes a host of disparate influences are rolls them into a cohesive whole.
If it was Øyunn’s intention to continue the momentum generated by Aspects then it’s a remit that’s very much remit fulfilled because ‘New Life’ is a bold and brash opener, and one that arrives with little warning. Like a bullet appearing between your eyebrows, you feel it before you see it and is all the more impactful for its sudden arrival. It’s a perfect introduction to Øyunn’s world, but one that might confuse first time listeners as unorthodox rhythms form a firm foundation, over which vocal lines follow a similar trajectory with words that seem to be made of elastic as Øyunn stretches and moulds them as if they’re plasticine. It’s a song that explodes with unbridled effervescence, a sense of rebirth; Øyunn is an artist throwing off the shackles of the past and the result is a light and airy song that blows along like paper caught in wind and as with the whole album, its bright and breezy nature gives a feeling of unpredictability, that it could travel in any direction.
I Know U Can Do It is co-produced by Øyunn and Brian Batz and they’ve furnished the record with a deceptively simple sound. There’s plenty of space within the grooves, yet it’s also full, lustrous and multilayered and as such it will reward repeat plays as subtle nuances buried deep within the mix reveal themselves on successive spins. Songs such as ‘Feel The Good’ operate with a kind of musical minimalism; there’s not one ounce of fat, neither a superfluous note and that brings certain aspects of this album into sharp relief, notably the lyrical content. These are very personal lyrics and give the impression that music is a kind of therapy, a primal scream with which to cleanse the soul. There’s a depth to the words contained on the likes of ‘Confusion’ that carry real weight, and no matter what activity you are undertaking, ‘Confusion’ has the power to stop you in your tracks. You might expect such an album to be maudlin, an introspective affair and while it sometimes veers in that direction as the album progresses, there’s always the music to act as a counterweight.
Øyunn is becoming a household name in her native Scandinavia, and on the strength of I Know U Can Do It it’s only a matter of time until the rest of the world catches on.
Track List:
- New Life
- I Know You Can Do It
- Hope That You’ll Sing Again
- Feed The Good
- Cycle
- Confusion
- I Wanna Talk To You
- Conversations In The Night (We’re OK)
