more from
Houndstooth
We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Museum

by JFDR

/
  • Streaming + Download

    Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    Purchasable with gift card

      £7 GBP  or more

     

  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    ++++++++++++++++++++++

    PASTE Magazine: 9.1
    Pitchfork: 7.3

    ++++++++++++++++++++++

    Includes unlimited streaming of Museum via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 5 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      £22 GBP or more 

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    Includes unlimited streaming of Museum via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 3 days
    Purchasable with gift card

      £10 GBP or more 

     

1.
The Orchid 04:21
Once an orchid sat In a silver light and Solemnly waited Slightly breathing Touched its glistening tear Only one dream away from A perfect birth One promise away from birth One secret away from One promise away from One dream a- One kiss away from life From a life, from another life, you know. Then when the sun rose In a newer lighting Lay his wings on her Warm with his kisses And touched her light feather Just so they could breathe again Just so they could feel the pain Just to be reborn again One secret One promise away from One dream a- One kiss away from life From a life, from another life, you know. Then when I said Sat his wings down Yearning for our love Over the whole
2.
Life Man 03:19
I can‘t be alone on my own For too long I‘m a wilted flower When I miss you so I can‘t tell my feelings apart Anymore Even when I reason with myself I‘m no closer When the therapist operated on me He simply raised his eyebrows and said; Life, man This could be a feeling I can‘t tell This could be the season I just don‘t know it This could be a dream And I‘ll wake up Get up brush your hair and start the day at midday In the meantime This could be a fever And I‘ll recover There could be some reason I just don‘t know it I could be dreaming Pinch me Freshen up and seize the rest of this forsaken day In the meantime Get up brush your hair and start the day at midday In the meantime
3.
Spectator 04:02
Heart, diamond shaped Pulled out at all its edges I can‘t tell if I‘m in over my head Words, in a spider web And you ask me to fix it I am in over my head I am the spectator I am the middle man Thinking for everyone Watching you both take out your fear on me How can I help you if it‘s best for me To stay away I‘m caught in between Feeling the feelings Of everyone except my own I can‘t take it I can‘t be in between How can I help you if I always get it wrong I am caught in between
4.
I don’t know what to do unspoken fears beholding lying in bed with you feeling the air unfolding are you afraid of us are you afraid I’m not thinking are you afraid I’m strong are you afraid I’m not loving it’s your reason it’s the feeling too that you’ve got nothing to lose that’s my heart ache that’s my love for you I’ve got something to prove tell me it’s true why can’t you believe the best in me, honey tell me you do see me as the one you truly choose i can hear you moon silently brushing off against
5.
6.
Valentine 02:55
my skin I can hear you quietly remembering how to live and i was somewhere along the way that time I can hear you’re calling me up I can hear them calling me all the time silently sombre in times of their riding waves halo against the skies you wait and they broaden the horizon I’m alone you’re alone tell them I do say calling my name so many times
7.
the sideways moon is smiling the silent doom is within me skin I know I’m chiselling off what I had sculpted claimed to be I loved you most exciting unattainable shadow in the mirror that was what I saw painting by the numbers filling in the gaps that was how i loved you that was what it was I catch myself asking time - go away is this merely life flashing right before we die I catch myself crying I wonder why it’s easier to forget it all until we die will you know I’m sorry taking what I took will you know I truly gave you all I got I loved you most exciting unattainable shadow in the mirror that was what i saw painting by the numbers filling in the gaps that was how i loved you that was what it was lost inside the stories told a thousand times am i somewhere in there forever on your mind i catch myself asking time - go away is this merely life flashing right before we die i catch myself crying i wonder why it’s easier to forget it all until we die
8.
February 04:16
cover the surface with wood a ghost of the treehouse we lived in old branches of a Christmas tree throw them one by one off of the balcony order an appointment with the doctor but spring is just breaths away February birthdays are the rarest do we get to dance when we can touch each other again? I miss things I didn’t even know I had around a face in the window across the street I get shy as she is staring straight at me an old man is on his balcony flaunting the sunshine to his iPad I used to be like this with my family back when i was away my sun and my moon will there be a twilight where you can love each other again? I will stay awake but I know it’s not enough I will love you both till the day we turn to dust
9.
a drink to the mishaps and the glory of the old days another for the instance when I brushed with the unknown a soft kiss for the sorrys and the deeds never undone and a prayer for the truth, whether it saves you or faults and so, darling I know, I am safe in your hands if I fall, from you or towards, I have somewhere to land I’ll be on your side, underneath the sun carved out in heaven, some of our love I have tried to hide, I have failed to forget I could be the culprit if I was right a tear for the troubled that I loved late that night that I have often wished how I hadn’t found lost is the answer in the fabric of the clouds a promise in the distance, whether it saves you or faults and so, darling I know ….

about

Icelandic experimental singer-songwriter Jófríður Ákadóttir aka JFDR's latest album Museum is a timeless monument to captured moments. Its nine tracks sculpt fleeting instants of experience into emotional objects, her voice a glowing aura in a mist of glittering gossamer synths and delicate instrumentation.

"I'm always thinking about how you might capture the essence of a moment; a thought process; a feeling and a mood," she says, describing her songs as sculptures; like thoughts and experiences captured in song and laid down on record, a concept reflected in the album's artwork, where she is photographed in austere black and white, statuesque in a garment designed by Sól Hansdóttir.

Museum was made in an intense and nurturing period she found at the other side of an existential crisis about her own work in the aftermath of the release of her previous album, the acclaimed New Dreams. It was a landmark album in her already decades-long career, and once it was finished JFDR began to experience a dissolving of inspiration. However, she began to emerge from her creative stasis in late 2021, inspired by the discovery of ideas lost to time and demos of songs never finished while purging her computer of old files. "I found a moment where something was happening," she says. "I knew I had to write without over thinking anything, and work on it intensely." Almost instantly, she started writing and finishing songs and didn't stop. Just a short time later, JFDR had a reflective, hopeful, and immersive nine track album that had been conceived and composed with a whole new spate of energy. It is, she says, "an album about clearing and healing. Like breathing fresh strong air through your old self."

This renewal of purpose, in a world emerging from the pandemic, lends Museum a weightlessness and sense of movement, a lifting up, a reflection on what has passed, and an escape. The nine tracks move between opener (and first single) 'The Orchid's beautifully unfurling melodies and through the subtle percussions on 'Life Man', which propel the song upwards to soar like spring breezes. Tracks like 'Air Unfolding' gather hope in whorls of piano and synths, alongside instrumental breathers such as 'Flower Bridge' whose sympathetic textures shivers with the metallic sound of Icelandic Langspil – a traditional Icelandic string instrument. In the dream-like 'Valentine' JFDR sings as if conjuring a spirit, as her vocals curl like wisps of smoke around the heavy and resonant silhouettes of electric guitar and bass. There is redemption to be found by the end of the album, with the healing, lightness and hope offered by closing track 'Underneath The Sun', where singer and a guitar usher us gloriously toward the light at the end of the tunnel.

There is also a second story of Museum's creation: a story of contributions from friends, family, and a musical community that aided the album's easy delivery through trust and support, from her twin sister's piano playing, which features on multiple tracks and was recorded at her house, to the club she formed with musician friends during the writing of the album to share music with. "It was a little nurturing bubble, but it was huge for me," she says. The club has a presence on the album: Gyda Valtýsdóttir plays cello on the record, and Úlfur Hansson trusted JFDR with his Langspil – he had hand-built himself aged nine. "It has such an eerie metallic sound," she explains, "we used it a lot because it's so strange, it sounds like nothing else and its frequencies can move above everything else."

Museum is JFDR's first album for Houndstooth, following atmospheric singles 'The Orchid' and 'Spectator', but at 28, she has already been making music for half her life, and over the years has built a strong fanbase that boasts Björk among its numbers. JFDR began her career age 14, when she and her sister formed a band in their hometown of Reykjavik and began releasing their music under the name of Pascal Pinon. They released three albums, the first of which they self-released, but was later picked up by Morr Music. "I was impatient back then, but I had a very nurturing environment," she explains. "I had access to places and spaces and role models."

From there JFDR played in other bands, from including as a member of the award-winning trio Samaris, and from 2014, Gangly. She now has 12 albums under her belt and has also collaborated with renowned artists Ólafur Arnalds and Damien Rice, Houndstooth's Penelope Trappes, among many others. She has also contributed multiple scores for film including for Dakota Fanning's short film Hello Apartment, Silja Hauksdóttir's Agnes Joy, and the award-winning Icelandic film Backyard Village.

Her first record as JFDR was 2017's Brazil, followed by 2020's New Dreams, which was released just before the pandemic and was described as “very haunting, electro-pop music, that’s very subtle, very inward looking” (NPR Music) and “the kind of album that might give you space to reach your own small revelations” (Stereogum).

After the existential questions she's overcome, JFDR's Museum represents an essential step in her ever-growing catalogue and a new beginning for an artist who's already had multiple careers as a musician, but who still feels she's just getting started: "This album is a step to somewhere," she says reflectively, "I feel I'm right in the middle of a new body of work.


*************************

European Tour 2023

Ticket links and tour dates:
jfdrcurrent.com/live


14.04 - The Sugar Club - Dublin
15.04 - C-Mine - Genk
10.05 - St Matthias Church - London
12.05 - St Marys Church - Brighton
13.05 - Paradiso - Amsterdam
16.05 - Cactus Muziekcentrum - Bruges
17.05 - Paleizen 12 - Brussels
18.05 - Jaki - Cologne
20.05 - Prachtwerk - Berlin
21.05 - Bombo y Platillo - Zaragoza
22.05 - Teatre del Raval - Castellon
24.05 - Antiga Fábrica Estrella Damm - Barcelona
26.05 - Cross Club - Prague
27.05 - Art Cafe Banska - Šriavnica
29.05 - Le Pop-UP du Label - Paris

credits

released April 28, 2023

Written by: Jófríður Ákadóttir
Produced by: Jófríður Ákadóttir, Joshua Wilkinson
Mixed by: Shahzad Ismaily, Joshua Wilkinson, Jófríður Ákadóttir at Figure 8 Recording, Brooklyn

Vocals and Organ by Jófríður Ákadóttir
Guitar by Ásgeir Kjartansson
Harp by Naomi Greene
Violin and viola by Viktor Orri Árnason
Piano by Ásthildur Ákadóttir
Piano Programming by Thomas Davíð Stankiewicz
Bass by Shahzad Ismaily
Drums by Albert Finnbogason
Percussion by Francesco Fabris
Mastered by: Taylor Deupree at 12k Mastering

Follow JFDR:
jfdrcurrent.com
Instagram: www.instagram.com/j0fridur/
Twitter: twitter.com/jfdrsound
Facebook: www.facebook.com/jfdrcurrent

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

JFDR Reykjavík, Iceland

JFDR is the latest project from Iceland's Jófríður Ákadóttir of Samaris, Pascal Pinon and Gangly.

shows

contact / help

Contact JFDR

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like JFDR, you may also like: