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 Teitur; (tie'tor) is a singular name for a singular man. Hailing from the Faroe Islands Teitur is an artist whose songs remind you what music can do for the soul. Teitur first came to the attention of the world with the release of his 2003 debut album Poetry & Aeroplanes, which won him rave reviews.
Teitur was born and spent his early years in The Faroe Islands. These bleak, but beautiful windswept, rain lashed, rocky outcrops in the Atlantic are due north of the UK and lie roughly mid way between Norway and Iceland. First settled by Irish monks and later Vikings, the Faroes were initially part of Norway and then latterly Denmark, of which they are still an autonomous region. The forty seven thousand Faroese who inhabit the Faroes are fiercely independent, even refusing to join the EU with Denmark. They retain their own language, with Danish only being used for commerce. It was this isolated upbringing with an inevitable sense of alienation and separation that informs much of Teitur's writing.
"Music is one of our main social activities," says Teitur. "There are always instruments in our homes. I started on my own music at thirteen, but the guitarist in my band was so much better than me and I was left at the back, playing acoustic. However I wrote all the lyrics from the start and in English. My native Faroese music is a part of me, but what really attracted me was pop music. Pop is almost all in English, which I find it gives me a bigger ocean of vocabulary," Teitur has more than one ocean of vocabulary to choose from as he speaks five languages. He finally decided to leave the islands, as many young Faroese do, at the age of 17 to study in Denmark. Then after a brief spell in Rome, he decided to base himself in London in 2002.
It is his songwriting and specifically a gift for acute empathetic observation that sets Teitur apart, a fact soon recognized by Corinne Bailey Rae who invited him to co-write with her early in her career. One of the songs they wrote together "Choux Pastry Heart" appears on her multi-platinum debut album. "I know some writers make a point about having a complete story: beginning, ending, moral, everything. I just do my best to describe it, and leave the rest up to mystery. I like it open-ended - to freeze a moment in time. Sometimes you write it right out of your head, then you see what you were saying when it's finished. Sometimes, at that right place and time, there will be a key that unlocks our feelings." Teitur says.
Website: www.teitur.com
MySpace: www.myspace.com/teitur
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Far away in the hidden civilization of the Faroe Islands the quintet ORKA spent one Christmas at founder Jens L. Thomsen’s father’s farm building musical instruments out of power tools and farm equipment. ORKA soon left the farm with their self-built instruments and started their travel through Europe.
“HOGNI is 100% integrated in his music. The modern world of music NEEDS to embrace this!”
Heiðrik is the new sound of a new musical generation hailing from the Faroe Islands. Mixing dark electronic baselines with melodic haunting choirs and strings and last and not least a powerful yet fragile vocal, Heiðrik leaves all in phrase. Heiðrik released his first album An Invisible Gun in late 2007, and already now Heiðrik is working on is next album witch could be expected later this year. Heiðrik was born and raised in the capital Tórshavn of Faroe Island. A population of only about 50.000 the Faroe Islands are one of the North Atlantics smallest and best kept secrets. The Faroe Islands are situated northwest of Scotland and halfway between Iceland and Norway. The harsh and yet beautiful nature of the Faroe Islands reflects the passionate and dramatic depths in Heiðrik..s music and voice. As said earlier Heiðrik is working on new material and soon we’re probably going to get some sneak previews, but until then stay tooned!
.. From Austin Chronicle 19/03/10:............. Gudrid Hansdóttir - A little something something from our extended family out in the Atlantic. Way out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, between Iceland and Scotland, is a cluster of 18 small islands called the Faroe Islands.