Stína Ágústsdóttir "Drown To Die A Little" 2016

"A brilliant voice on a musical carousel" - Sydsvenskan
Stina Agustsdottir is considered one of Iceland’s best jazz artists and nowadays she’s just as established in Sweden. She is known for her energetic live performances, not only in Scandinavia, but also in her previous home of Montreal. She has been nominated for the Icelandic music prize a few times, both for her album, Jazz á íslensku (Jazz in Icelandic, 2017) and for The Whale (2021). Jazz á íslensku has already become a classic in Iceland and has been used in Icelandic language lessons and is played frequently on the radio. Stina has been living in Sweden since 2011 and plays with artists such as Maz Schultz, Håkan Brosträm, Erik Söderlind, Simon Berggren, Henrik Linder, Joel Lyssarides and Kjetil Mulelid.
Stina, herself, says about her album: In 2016 I got seriously ill and needed to put my life on hold. I managed to get back on my feet, with the help of family and friends, and the music on the record is about this journey from darkness towards light. The songs reflect the many sides of a human being, both the pretty and the ugly, and that it’s ok to be a mess and need help.
I’ve worked with guitarist and songwriter Mikael Máni Ásmundsson on two albums before and we continued the collaboration on this album. He helped me finish some of the songs and even wrote new music to some of the lyrics I had. I reached out to a couple of other songwriters for collaboration, Maïa Davies and Jan Alexander.
I got a grant from Hljóðritasóður Rannís in Iceland for the album and we recorded at the legendary Sigur Rós studio, Sundlaugin, with the best band ever!: Henrik Linder on bass (Dirty Loops), Mikael Máni on guitar, Magnús Jóhann Ragnarsson on keys, Magnús Trygvason Elíassen on drums and Albert Finnbogason helped produce and mixed the album. We also had a string quartet and harp on a couple of tunes.
The first preview of the album is the song Body. Stina: I contacted Maïa Davies, a friend from Montreal, who now resides and works in Los Angeles as a singer-songwriter and producer, and asked if she would collaborate on a song that was a sort of a forgiveness to my body. She was very interested, and has herself dealt with a negative body image and issues related to that. I wrote down everything I’ve felt through the years, how I went from being a well trained ballerina, tormented with self-hate to being a strong and proud woman who loves her body in spite of everything. This song and the process from writing it to a finished recording has been extremely therapeutic for me. I have played the song live a few times and it really hits home for many people, especially women. - https://www.stinaagustsdottir.com/_files/ugd/685654_f57b3b7c252a4c7aa6782bc7d6b57b68.pdf
trax:
01 Maternal 02 Possessions of Grace 03 Forest in Me 04 Alone with Their Demons 05 Steinar 06 Open Heart 07 Body 08 Shameless Nothings 09 Stay in This Heartbeat
…served by Gaius…