Vargkvint - Hav Reimagined (2021)

After a widely positive reception for her debut full-length album Hav, Swedish multifaceted artist Vargkvint is returning in January with a collection of high-calibre reworks made by some of her favourite creators.

This time, she has enlisted the talent of Tangerine Dream member Hoshiko Yamane, nostalgia maestro Tim Linghaus, our record label’s favourite duo Klangriket and Sjors Mans, and cinematic-pop artist Bonander, to name a few, to completely reinterpret the seven tracks from her previous release. The new album also includes a bonus alternate version of Drivved, uniquely available through Bandcamp.

Hav Reimagined is set to release on the 22nd of January, with all proceeds going to The Ocean Cleanup, a non-profit organisation that develops advanced technologies to rid the world’s oceans of plastic.

Drawing inspiration from oceans, forests and folklore, Vargkvint is the musical project of Stockholm-based artist Sofia Nystrand. After self releasing her low-key debut EP Brus in 2016, it was picked up for re-release by French label Soft Recordings the consecutive year, followed by her first full-length effort, the concept album Hav, published on April 2019 through piano and coffee records on limited edition vinyl.

Combining evocative melodies and a playful approach to arrangement and instrument usage, Vargkvint’s music falls neatly between the definitions of folk, modern classical, pop and experimental music, and she has on several occasions toured internationally, performing at stages such as Q3Ambientfest in Potsdam, Germany.

”The sea has played such a huge part for us, in how societies have formed and grown, it has connected us with each other and given us life, and is the base behind much of our mythology. But at the same time, it has been a really cruel mistress – its storms, tsunamis and rising sea levels have been devastating to both individual lives, whole societies and now humanity as a whole. It’s in that conflict – its beauty and its menace, its life-giving and its life-taking – this concept-album was created”, Nystrand says.