i listen to this all the time.  this is the alter-ego of HJORTUR, who also has tons of cds for sale on this site.  listen to the samples...it's very good.
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I enthused about the music of Hjörtur Blöndal last issue; now he's back with a new project Alfarspace. The name comes from álfar, the Icelandic word for elves, but don't get any preconcieved ideas based on popular perceptions of elves as something twee, elves just aren't like that in Icelandic tradition. The music is just as eclectic and creative as anything Hjörtur has done in the past, bringing together futuristic electronic pop music, electronically processed voices, woodwind, guitars - electric and acoustic, rockish elements and various other bits. Some tracks include a lot of the above elements mixed together; others like I Am, are more straightforward pop songs. Straightforward needn't mean dull though, I Am is a really well-crafted song with a very strong tune.
As with Hjörtur's previous album Keen Sabid, the music incorporates a wide variety of different styles but isn't a mere attempt to sound off-the-wall. Instead this is genuinely inventive, creative music by an artist who seems very much to be doing his own thing without direct influences from whatever music is flavour of the month right now. In a time when so much music is an obvious rehash of what has gone before, it is refershing to hear music which seems only to come from within the musician's mind.

Reviewed by Kim Harten
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