Gyða Valtýsdóttir – Ox: Breathy vocals and nuanced cello

This, Valtýsdóttir’s fourth record, began its life in the dark winter in Brooklyn, and took further shape in the light of the Icelandic summer. In a way the nine compositions resemble that evolution, each unfurling like small chrysalises, exploring the duality that permeates so much of our lives.

That duality is drawn out through a variety of interesting musical choices, with Valtýsdóttir’s breathy, and at times tentative vocal, and nuanced use of cello underpinning much of the work. Alphabet’s melancholy strings contrast with the playful flutes and trip-hop of Black Swan (which brings to mind Björk’s Utopia).

Beautiful and eerie

In Corde, an adaptation of a 12th-century hymn by mystic nun Hildegard Von Bingen, is so rich, with its elegant piano, strings and voices chasing each other to create a beautiful, and at times, eerie effect.

Cute Kittens Lick Cream is all dreamy and affecting, prefacing the sombre, swirling Miracle, which brings us “into the darkest current”, a current that lifts a little on the glowing Prism. Yet there is a humour at work here also, as on Heavenly Privacy, where whispering chants dance on top of the crackle of the volcano it was recorded from. Tell It is all plink-plonk pared-back grace, and complements the soaring strings on Amaying. This is an immersive record, harnessing elements of the deep past while referencing an equally deep modernity.