LAY LOW
featured songmaker Lovísa Sigrúnardóttir
Lay Low is the moniker for our featured song maker Lovísa Sigrúnardóttir, an Icelandic multi-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter. Born in England to a Sri Lankan father and an Icelandic mother, Lay Low's music offers an unexpected experience of western blues/folk traditions set against an international backdrop. Her songs are often straightforward and paired down, featuring earthy guitar and vocals as predominant elements, allowing the simple but elegant compositions to strike clear and true. Lyrically, she delivers in accord with her musical roots, writing about the joy and pain of love as well as any of her country and blues brethren.
Lovísa has found significant acclaim in her native Iceland, winning numerous awards, carrying a leading role in the Icelandic film December, and scoring the play Okutimar for which she lovingly covered several Dolly Parton songs. In 2009, she released the album Flatey, named for a tiny island some miles of the coast of Iceland. She visited this place, home to five people year round, to record seven acoustic tracks and to produce an accompanying short film for the song "Little by Little," which exemplifies Lovísa's taste for the serene and sparse.
It would seem that in Lay Low's music, one experiences a psychic connection between the stark Icelandic landscape and the simple and direct emotive soundscape of American blues and country. One beautiful example of this is her live performance of "Donna Mo's Blues," a song Lovísa penned prior to her Lay Low days. Through this unconventional association, the music of Lay Low affords an expanded experience of a familiar western musical tradition, and does so in a deeply engaging way.
Lovísa put this gorgeous mix tape together for our readers... so much beauty packed into only 8 tracks! I can't stop listening to this gem. And seriously, how did I not know about Linda Perhacs before? Listen, enjoy, and share the goodness!
