Black Lights

Written and recorded over the past year in Berlin, Reykjavik and Ireland, ‘Black Lights’ is the Icelandic trio’s most fully realised and accessible record yet - sung for the first time entirely in English and headed up by gorgeous lead-off single ‘Wanted 2 Say’. ‘Black Lights’ is a reflection on both the expanded horizons afforded by a year of experiences on the road following the release of 2014’s ‘Silkidrangar’, and of a period of change and not a little emotional turmoil for all three band members. The way the new album came together reflects the changing personal personal circumstances of the group over the last year. All are now based in separate cities: Þórður Kári Steinþórsson (aka Doddi - programming) relocating to Berlin to take part in the city’s burgeoning techno scene, Áslaug Rún Magnúsdóttir (clarinet) to The Hague to study a specialised Sonology course and Jófríður Ákadóttir (voice) footloose, traveling to experience new places and the musical cultures within them. Within months of forming in their teens in Reykjavik in 2011, Samaris had won both the Icelandic Músíktilraunir and Kraumur Award. The release of their two Icelandic EPs as the eponymous, ‘Samaris’ in summer 2013 served as their first introduction to the wider world. “We want people to experience something they haven’t experienced before,” they told a curious Dazed & Confused, and once ‘Silkidrangar’ – their debut LP proper – had dropped, the original aspiration of “just wearing funny costumes and thinking maybe we could get a gig in a bar in Reykjavik” became distant memory as Samaris took their hypnotising show round the world taking in Roskilde, Green Man, Sónar, Reeperbahn, Longitude, All Tomorrow’s